Site: Capel Brithdir

Name:Capel Brithdir [Also: Tirphil] CISP No:TIRPH
Place:Bargoed Grid Ref:SO 1375 262 (GB)   Map
Parish:Gelli-gaer Stones:1
County:Glamorgan (Morgannwg) , Wales Saint(s):none
Site Type:landscape setting

Site Notes

Stephens/1862, 130: `This stone, mentioned by the Rev. John Griffith at the Bangor meeting, stands in a very desolate spot in a district difficult of access, and does not seem to have attracted the attention of any competent antiquary. I made my way thither from the Hengoed Junction, taking the Rhymney railway as far as Tir Phil station; then ascending the Cefn Brithdir ridge, I came to Capel Brithdir, a small chapel frequented apparently by but few persons besides the clergyman and his clerk; and having a rotten wooden belfry, but no bell, the bell having been stolen, it is said, in 1858. The sole evidences of vitality about the place were two venerable yew trees, quite decayed in the trunks, and with only a few green sprigs at the top. To the north of the chapel, in a field on the west side of a mountain road, stands the stone in question'.

Jones/1862, 220: `It is in a field a little to the north-west of the poor little chapel of Brithdir, on the top of a steep ridge, or cefn, to the west of the valley of the Rhymny, near an old line of road prolonged northwards along the ridge, looking to the south-west towards Gelly Gaer. This position is not improbably its original one; but no remains of a carn round the base of the stone indicate the presence of an interment'.

Fox/1939, 35--36: `Cefn Brithdir is the adjoining ridge to Cefn Gelligaer, and forms the eastern side of the Bargoed-Rhymney valley. The Tegernacus stone stood on the top of the ridge, in a field to the north-west of the little church known as Capel Brithdir, and to the west of the roadway that runs along the spur. This roadway is a true ridgeway, traversing the hill from end to end, and affords an easy passage round the head of the valley, where it joins the Roman road from Gelligaer near Rhaslas pond...The site of the stone (now by with a concrete pillar) like the others discussed, is, therefore, likely to have been selected for its proximity to a traffic route.

Owing to the numerous high dry-stone field walls which surround it, it is impossible to determine whether the stone was crest-sited. There are no remains of any surrounding earthwork or other distinguishing feature beside it; the field has been under plough in the past'.

RCAHMW/1976, 36: `near the site of Capel Brithdir at ca. 390 m above O.D.'.

References

Stones