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Stone Temple Gardening
Where Land Meets Sky
Landscape First, Monument Second
Stone Temple Gardening explores ancient monuments through the landscapes that shaped them.
Since my teenage years I have been drawn to prehistoric sites, from famous monuments such as Stonehenge and Avebury to obscure standing stones, hidden burial chambers, ridges, rivers, outcrops and forgotten paths. My work begins with a simple idea: the land comes first. Routes, horizons, natural features and movement through place often shaped how monuments were built, used and remembered.
I am a historian by training, not an archaeologist, which gives this project its particular voice. Stone Temple Gardening combines field observation, photography, archaeoastronomy, folklore, sensory experience and careful speculation to ask how ancient people may have encountered the living landscape before stone made those encounters permanent.
All My Stories
All My Stories
Lligwy Neolithic Burial Chamber: The Descent Into the Stone's Grave
An enormous limestone capstone dominates Lligwy Burial Chamber on Anglesey. But what if the tomb occupies the very place from which that stone was raised? Archaeology, human remains, marine shells and the experience of entering beneath the stone reveal a monument shaped by movement, return and absence.
Aug 818 min read
Barclodiad y Gawres: Art, Fire and the Architecture of Sacred Passage
Barclodiad y Gawres is one of Britain’s most extraordinary decorated Neolithic monuments. This essay follows its carved stones, fire, darkness and Irish Sea setting to ask whether Wales’s “Newgrange” was not simply a tomb, but a temple of the sea.
Jul 1817 min read
Stone Temple Gardening — A Few Words at the End of 2025
Stone Temple Gardening began quietly in 2024, as a way of keeping notes while walking ancient ground — a place to think out loud,to integrate a lifetime of observation and reading on prehistory, and to share insights that didn’t fit easily elsewhere. It was never intended as a statement or a system. Over time, and largely thanks to those who returned to read, it became something more shared.
Dec 28, 20257 min read
The Dark Mound in the Hazel Grove: A Poem for Bryn Celli Ddu
The Dark Mound in the Hazel Grove: A Poem for Bryn Celli Ddu is a meditation on Anglesey’s most mysterious Neolithic monument. Blending archaeology with myth, the poem moves through ice ages, star cycles, ancient hunters, and the builders of Bryn Celli Ddu. Themes of stone, time, and memory unfold in lyrical verse, evoking the monument not just as a tomb but as a living presence in the landscape.
Sep 15, 20255 min read
Exploring Anglesey’s Neolithic Secrets: The Sun Stone and Other Faces at Bryn Celli Ddu
Explore Anglesey’s Neolithic secrets at Bryn Celli Ddu, the Sun Stone, and other stone faces. Discover how solstice alignments, quartz-veined monoliths, and carved pebbles reveal the spiritual, mythic, and cosmological world of Neolithic builders. Journey through sacred landscapes where archaeology meets intuition, uncovering the hidden symbolism and animist practices that shaped ancient Anglesey.
Sep 7, 202512 min read
Bryn Celli Ddu Solstice 2025 Part 5: Unearthing the Bear Shaped Capstone at Lligwy Neolithic Burial Chamber in the Sacred Landscape of Anglesey.
Unearthing the Bear of Lligwy: A Neolithic Discovery in Anglesey
At Lligwy burial chamber on the island of Anglesey, Wales, a striking new observation has been made: the great capstone that crowns this Neolithic tomb bears the unmistakable outline of a bear. First recorded by researcher and writer Alexander Peach, this discovery adds a fresh dimension to our understanding of Neolithic symbolism and ritual life.
Aug 30, 202513 min read
Unearthing the Ancient: Sacred Blueschist and Quartz the Geological and Mythic Heart of Bryn Celli Ddu Anglesey.
Bryn Celli Ddu, the celebrated Neolithic passage tomb on Anglesey, is more than just a prehistoric monument. It is a carefully constructed temple where stone, light, and story converge. In this exploration of the site’s geology and mythic significance, we focus on a remarkable material rarely discussed in detail—quartz-veined blueschist, a stone found only in a narrow band across Anglesey and central to the sacred design of Bryn Celli Ddu.
The Neolithic builders chose this ra
Aug 23, 20258 min read
Exploring the Neolithic Heart of Anglesey: Bryn Celli Ddu’s Sacred Landscape
Unearthing the Sacred: The Psychogeography of Place
Explore Bryn Celli Ddu’s sacred landscape in this immersive journey through Anglesey’s Neolithic heart. Blending archaeology, phenomenology, and sensory experience, this post traces the rhythms of stone, light, and spirit. Discover why this ancient mound resonates across millennia, inviting us to listen to the land’s timeless presence. Join the solstice pilgrimage and uncover the mysteries of a sacred geography where past an
Aug 15, 202510 min read
Has a Lost Stone Circle Been Found at Bryn Celli Ddu? Exciting New Discoveries in Wales
A new excavation just beyond Bryn Celli Ddu has revealed tantalising evidence of a lost stone circle. Join me on the ridge at Tyddyn Bach, where archaeologists uncovered a buried monolith and a possible ring ditch — findings that may reshape our understanding of Anglesey’s sacred landscape. In this post, I document the dig, explore the myths, and reflect on how ancient imagination still echoes in stone.
Jul 15, 202519 min read
Stone, Sun, and Spirit: My Summer Solstice Journey to Bryn Celli Ddu
Experience the 2025 summer solstice at Bryn Celli Ddu, Anglesey’s most iconic Neolithic tomb. In this richly illustrated post, Alexander Peach returns to witness the sunrise light enter the chamber, illuminating a quartz-veined stone and casting an axe-shaped beam. Explore the sacred landscape, solar alignments, and new archaeological insights into the Gorsedd, Sun Stone, and Tyddyn Bach. A powerful blend of myth, history, and first-hand observation.
Jul 6, 202515 min read
Unveiling the Cosmic Mysteries of Bryn Celli Ddu: Explore the Celestial Secrets of the Neolithic Solstice Sun
Exploration of Ancient astronomy at Bryn Celli Ddu, Anglesey, Wales, UK
Apr 4, 202531 min read
Stone, Sky, River and Mountain The Sacred Geography of Bryn Celli Ddu: Part Three.
Blueschist Rock in Central Chamber: Photo by Author The Sacred Heart of Anglesey Part Three: The Sanctified Rocks, Mountains and River at Bryn Celli Ddu Welcome back to Stone Temple Gardening, where we dig deep to unearth the mysteries of prehistory to cultivate new understandings of the past! All photos are my own, with permission, or creative commons. Before we embark, a heartfelt thank you to Dr. Mike Woods, whose groundbreaking PhD thesis, Dark Side of the Tomb, offers a
Mar 10, 202519 min read
Bryn Celli Ddu: Unearthing the Sacred Heart of Neolithic Anglesey Part 2:
Was the connection between builders and the ancestors facilitated by rituals bound to the sun, moon, and the flickering interplay of firelit shadows? We will consider how this place's optical and acoustic properties may have deepened these experiences of communion.
Mar 3, 202510 min read
Bryn Celli Ddu: Unearthing the Sacred Heart of Anglesey Part 1
An exploration of the layered archaeology at Bryn Celli Ddu from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Ages
Jan 29, 202524 min read
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