The Preseli Hills: Where Stonehenge Came From

Inland Pembrokeshire gets a fraction of the coast's visitors, which is a shame, because the Preseli Hills hold one of the densest concentrations of prehistoric monuments anywhere in Britain — and a direct connection to the most famous monument of all.

The bluestone story

The smaller stones at the centre of Stonehenge — the bluestones — are not local to Wiltshire. Geologists matched them to specific outcrops in the Preselis in the 1920s, and excavation over the last two decades has identified the actual quarries: Carn Goedog for the spotted dolerite, Craig Rhos-y-felin for the rhyolite. Stone-working debris, wedges and platforms have been found at both.

Then, in 2021, a team excavating a stone circle at Waun Mawn, a few miles away, published a striking argument: the circle there was dismantled around 3000 BC, its diameter matches the bluestone circle at Stonehenge, and one empty socket fits the cross-section of a bluestone still standing in Wiltshire. The claim that Stonehenge's first circle stood here and was moved 175 miles east is contested — but it is a serious argument, made from evidence in the ground.

You can walk to all three. There are no signs, no visitor centre and no facilities.

Pentre Ifan

If you do one thing, do Pentre Ifan, on the northern slopes above Nevern. It's a Neolithic burial chamber from around 3500 BC — older than Stonehenge, older than the pyramids — and its sixteen-tonne capstone rests on the tips of three uprights so delicately that it looks like a trick. It's free, open at all times, and on a clear day you look out over it to Cardigan Bay.

The rest of the day

Carreg Coetan in Newport is another burial chamber, tucked improbably among modern houses. Carreg Samson above Abercastle sits in a field above the sea. Parc y Meirw in the Gwaun Valley is a row of standing stones, one of the longest in Wales. Foel Drygarn is an Iron Age hillfort with three Bronze Age cairns inside it, and one of the best views in the county from the top. Gors Fawr near Mynachlog-ddu is a proper stone circle, easy to reach, usually empty.

The Gwaun Valley

Cutting through the northern edge of the hills, the Gwaun is a glacial meltwater channel — a deep, wooded, oddly self-contained valley whose few farms famously still keep Hen Galan, the old New Year, on 13 January under the pre-1752 calendar. The Dyffryn Arms here serves beer through a hatch into a front room and has done for decades.

Practicalities

The Preselis are open access land, but the sites sit on working farms. Gates shut, dogs on leads, park considerately — the lanes are single-track with passing places, and blocking a field gate is a genuine problem for someone.

Weather comes in fast and the tops have no shelter. Boots, a map and a jacket, even in August.

See ancient sites across Pembrokeshire or where to stay near Newport.