The Druid's Circle - Sarah Woodbury

The Druid’s Circle

The Druid’s circle is an ancient stone monument located on Penmaenmawr, the larger headland to the west of the town of Conwy in north Wales.

Despite the name, this stone circle predates the druids and the Celtic religion by millenia and may be up to 5000 years old. Known as Meini Hirion in Welsh, meaning long stones, several prehistoric trackways run past the site. This area was important because the type of rock at Penmaenmawr, augite granophyre, was ideal for making stone axes. Axe heads from Penmaenmawr have been discovered around Britain including in Scotland, Yorkshire and the Thames Valley. Modern quarrying destroyed the remains of a large prehistoric settlement on the mountaintop west of Penmaenmawr, although some archeological studies were undertaken before the evidence was lost. Excavations conducted in 1957 at the druid’s circle itself discovered the cremated remains of two children in burial urns, one in the center of the circle and the second in a nearby pit. One legend says that if a baby is placed on one of the stones, ominously called ‘the sacrifice stone’ he will have good luck for life.

Today, the circle consists of thirty stones in a circle approximately 80 feet in diameter. The stones are elevated on a rough bank of rubble, and the entrance is through a group of 4 stones set 8 feet apart.

Although the Druid’s Circle itself isn’t in my book, the nearby quarry at Penmaenmawr is the site of a time travel event in Refuge in Time, a novel from the After Cilmeri series.


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