In a field idly grazed by horses, less than half-a-mile from the A55, a faint circular shadow can be seen in the grass from above. An earth bank runs to the circle, like a handle leading to a magnifying glass. Some historians are convinced: it’s is a Neolithic henge, and in Flintshire of all places.
These were earth enclosures dating back some 4,000-5,000 years ago. There’s a rather famous henge on Salisbury Plain. But before anyone gets carried away, the Flintshire henge bears only passing resemblance to its more illustrious sarsen cousin.
Its banks were probably only a few feet high and it’s unlikely stone was ever involved. Yet its existence has excited enthusiasts. Monument-scarce North East Wales has long suffered in the shadow of Gwynedd and Anglesey but there’s a growing belief the region was once too a Neolithic and Bronze Age powerhouse.
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Inevitably, little is known about the Flintshire henge, which sits inside the 18th century Holywell Racecourse near Pantasaph. For a long while, the adjoining linear bank was thought to be part of Offa’s Dyke. Recent thinking suggests it is a separate earth barrow, or better still a cursus, one of the oldest monumental structures in Britain.
Advocating the case for the so-called Hollywell Henge, or earth circle, is Nowell Snaith, a history teacher at Wrexham’s Ysgol Clywedog school. On his online Curious Clwyd platform – a homage to writer Gordon Emery’s books of the same name – he argues it shows north east Wales was no Neolithic backwater.
“The Irish Sea was the M1 of its time, the main trade route up and down Britain,” he said. “Western Wales is where goods were exchanged and brought inland.
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“After Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, Y Gop in Flintshire is Britain’s second largest prehistoric mound, and the area further south gave rise to the exquisite Mold Gold Cape and Caergwrle Bowl.
“The Mold Gold Cape was made of the highest craftsmanship for a person – probably a woman – of extremely high status. In fact, another very similar cape was found in Wrexham, almost certainly made by the same group of artisans, and later lost.
“The Caergwrle Bowl is thought to represent a boat, with oars and waves, yet was made more than 10 miles from the coast. Some of the stuff produced in this area was astonishing. It suggests the region was a melting pot, a kind of crossroads of trade and ideas.”
Still, the uncomfortable truth is that, Y Gop aside, there are few big, monuments of this period in north east Wales. Anglesey has Bryn Celli Ddu, Gwynedd has Bryn Cader Faner and Conwy the Druid’s Circle. The Brenig cairn platform is an impressive structure in Denbighshire. Stone circles litter the landscape further west, though Nowell notes these were constructed later than henges.
Anglesey was thought to have a henge, at Castell Bryn Bwyn, Brynsiencyn. But this is now considered a defensive mound. Evidence of Neolithic habitation has been found there – and people didn’t live in henges.
“I believe they were gathering places,” said Nowell. “People conducted official business there, and held social functions, or parties. They were a bit like community centres, not somewhere where people lived.
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“A lot of this is informed guesswork, of course. Many of the structures in this region are older than farming and date back to a time when populations were partially itinerant and needed somewhere to meet up.”
In his 1949 book Prehistoric and Roman Remains of Flintshire, Ellis Davies described the existence of a second earth henge nearby. This, he noted sadly, now lay beneath the 4th green at Holywell Golf Course, just a pitching wedge from the A55. The course was built in 1906 and extended in 1924.
The existence of twin henges reinforces the idea this was a place of some significance. In reality, twin earth henges weren’t exclusive to Flintshire: a similar site existed in Gwynedd. This too lies less than a mile from the A55, perhaps reflecting the logic of old trade routes.
In the 1960s distinctive crop markings were observed from the air prior to the construction of Llandegai industrial estate, near Bangor. Archaeological excavations revealed several Neolithic ceremonial monuments, including two earth henges.
A later prehistoric settlement was built within the larger henge, when its mounds were repurposed as defensive barriers. Centred on the largest known roundhouse in Wales, this henge may have been still been occupied during the Roman period.
Also identified at the site was a rectangular enclosure, apparently aligned with Llandegai church. This was a genuine cursus: small by the standards of others in Britain, but one of the earliest, dating back almost 6,000 years. Once thought to be linked to rituals, it’s now believed they were used for rights-of-passage competitions.
In contrast, there’s no certainty the linear bank at Holywell Henge is a cursus. It may have merely been an earth barrow – perhaps an elevated ceremonial route to the henge used by VIPs of the day.
Several excavations have taken place, the first in 1925. An off-centre cairn was identified with a grave pit beneath containing the skeleton of a man, aged around 35-45 with “notably large teeth”. Two cremation burials were also discovered, along with that of a middle-aged woman near the cairn.
The henge was found to be surrounded by a circular ditch some 6ft wide and 3ft deep. This had sharp, vertical sides and an entrance to the north. Another burial site was located in the ditch.
Nowell believes these findings – of sequential burials from the later Neolithic to the early Bronze Age – show long-lived reverence for the site. Those laid to rest there were probably “individuals of considerable stature”, he added.
“Many of the region’s constructions have long been ploughed out – we have lost far more than we will ever find,” he said. “But less than five miles from the Holywell Henge is the enormous presence of Y Gop, the largest prehistoric monument in Wales.
“Together with the sheer number of cairns in the area and the later presence of a people capable of producing wonders like the Mold Gold Cape, it suggests this was a landscape of almost unimaginable importance.”
- Nowell's Curious Clwyd website can be found here.
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