Is this any way to treat our heritage?

by Sandy Gerrard

During the course of this year a number of articles have appeared here and elsewhere on the goings on at Mynydd y Betws.  Behind the scenes I am continuing to explore with the various authorities what has gone wrong and am still seeking explanations. Meanwhile on the mountain itself the work continues and the turbines are popping up next to the huge platforms that have been cut into the hillsides.  The Bancbryn area where the stone alignment was identified earlier this year also contains three scheduled ancient monuments.  These are highlighted green in the photograph below.

The position of the stone alignment is shown by the red line and the blue denotes the new road and turbine platform.  The fourth green area on the hilltop in the background is a scheduled castle known as Penlle’r Castell.  The new road cuts its way past the scheduled areas and at one point is only a couple of metres away. The scheduled archaeology has not yet been damaged but its setting has certainly been altered and its landscape context disrupted both visually and physically.  The prehistoric landscape on Bancbryn will never be the same and this despite its recognition as nationally important. Sadly this was seen as being of lesser significance than the need to meet renewable energy targets. It seems unsatisfactory that it is acceptable to mutilate what Cadw previously called a “complex interconnected ritual landscape” for a temporary energy gain.

A scheduled cairn now overwhelmed by a 110m high turbine