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Wales is rich in archaeological heritage and Arthur’s Stone on the northern slope of Cefn Bryn, Gower, is one of Wales’ most famous prehistoric monuments. The future king Henry VII took time to visit the stone on his march from Milford Haven to fight Richard III at the battle of Bosworth and in the 1500s it was ranked with Stonehenge and Silbury Hill as one of the three greatest achievements in Britain at the time.

Its importance was recognized by the fact that it was one of the earliest monuments in Wales to be protected by the Ancient Monuments Act at the end of the 19th century.

The monument gets it name from one of several legends that link King Arthur with Wales. One legend recounts that Arthur was travelling in Carmarthenshire, when he found a stone in his shoe. Removing it, he threw it across the Loughor estuary. By the time it landed on Cefn Bryn it had grown into a massive boulder.

Arthur’s Stone is, in fact, a communal double-chambered tomb. It was built by the local Neolithic inhabitants of Cefn Bryn close on 6,000 years ago to receive the remains of their dead.

The most prominent feature of the monument today is the massive glacial boulder, pictured, which forms the capstone of the tomb. The present stone weighs in excess of 25 tons but originally was even larger until natural weathering caused about one quarter of the boulder to break off. Because of its size, builders constructed the tomb by excavating beneath the boulder and inserting 12 upright stone blocks to support the cap, to act as the walls and create the two chambers. The bones of the deceased would then have been placed in the chambers.

Monuments, such as Arthur’s Stone, not only reveal much about the architectural, planning and engineering skills and constructional achievements of the Neolithic peoples of Wales. They were impressive public monuments that also reveal much about prehistoric society, its organisation and its care for the dead.

More generally, Arthur’s stone should not be considered in isolation. The monument and the many other the chambered tombs of Wales formed part of a broader architectural tradition, stretching from Scotland in the north through Ireland and parts of England and along the Atlantic coast of Europe (and indeed beyond), that firmly located Wales in cultural traditions and architectural achievements of western Europe.

Eddie Owens: "I am an archaeologist and originate from Liverpool. I came to Swansea to teach Ancient History and Archaeology via Sheffield University. I am interested in all aspects of archaeology and have worked on several projects in the Swansea and South Wales areas. However, having experienced excavation in south Yorkshire as a student I decided that if I was going to be a professional archaeologist, I would prefer to do my digging in the sun. Consequently, my main archaeological work focuses on the ancient cities of western Turkey."