Singing to the Stones

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Bryn Celli Ddu

We weren't so lucky with the weather for our visit to this famous site. It was a typical wet, blustery day on Anglesey. Bryn Celli Ddu is a very atmospheric sight from the road and in approach, so it is disappointing when entering the chamber to see two concrete joists holding up the roof. Upon reading more, it seems that archeological digs have made rather a mess of it and the chamber is now only a quarter the size it should have been. What a shame - if it is impressive in its current state, it must have been an absolute wonder!

Because this is quite a famous "burial chamber" we were interrupted several times which made it hard to work in an organised way. The stones are as live as any I've encountered, though I was not able to run a test with a scale, as at Lligwy. Ironically, the first people to arrive on site whilst I was playing some didgeridoo music were Australian tourists. Lovely folk, I might add! They pointed out to me that they had heard the sound at quite some distance and indeed, the mound had a curiously amplifying effect on the music when I went outside to listen for myself.

The electrical levels were similar to those at other sites, but by the time I was able to get round to testing a scale, Rosie was complaining of the cold. In truth it was not a pleasant day and so we left. When looking back on the footage, I was astonished to see that the lintel over the doorway had also been live! Evidently there is a LOT to discover about these buildings and how they are "wired". At the dolmen in the Caucasus mountains, where I first got a significant reading, the live area was also some distance from the sound chamber.

Bryn Celli Ddu