The academic literature exploring the present-day reuse and replication of ancient monuments has grown significantly and embraces the study of war memorials and a host of other forms of public monumentality and art (e.g. Williams 2014 a & b). Here, I reflect on a recent addition to the 21st-century landscape of Wales inspired by the earliest forms of prehistoric architecture known from these islands. I recently encountered the newest Welsh dolman at Benllech. It is situated, in early spring, amidst daffodils upon a green island between the main A5025 road and side loop road leading to Maes Llydan on the southern side of the village of Benllech, Ynys Mon.
NorthWalesLive report on 15 October 2022 how it looks like a ‘baby Stonehenge’ which reveals more about popular conflations of any kind of megalithic monument with Stonehenge than it says about the cromlech, although immediately Spinal Tap comes to mind… They go on to describe it as a ‘dwarf structure’ and a ‘replica burial chamber’. Responding to the village name which derives from ‘penllech’ that means ‘headstone’ or ‘capstone’, the aim of this installation is ‘place shaping’/’creating a sense of place’ by the community group Caru Benllech and part of a broader Prosiect Marian run by Llanfair Mathafarn Eithaf Community Council. Other installations are a planter and a cross and new benches
The monument has already been added to the Megalithic Portal.
Its relationship with two nearby Neolithic monuments – Pant-y-Saer and Coed y Glyn – were a key inspiration for a Neolithic monument in miniature as part of the contemporary streetscape of Benllech.
Williams, H. 2014. Monument and material reuse at the National Memorial Arboretum, Archaeological Dialogues 21(1): 77-104. doi:10.1017/S1380203814000117 http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1380203814000117 http://hdl.handle.net/10034/336334
Williams, H. 2014. Antiquity at the National Memorial Arboretum, International Journal of Heritage Studies 20(4): 393-414. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2012.757556 http://hdl.handle.net/10034/336332
Archaeo𝔡𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔥 