Waun Mawn Stone Circle
Waun Mawn is a Neolithic stone circle located in the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire, west Wales, and it stands as one of the most archaeologically significant prehistoric monuments to have emerged in British research in recent decades. Though modest in appearance compared to the grandeur of Stonehenge, Waun Mawn has attracted extraordinary scholarly attention because of compelling evidence suggesting it may have been a direct predecessor to Stonehenge itself — a proto-Stonehenge dismantled and its stones transported some 230 miles eastward to Salisbury Plain around 3000 BCE. This makes it not merely a local curiosity but potentially a monument of national and even civilisational importance, reshaping how archaeologists understand the origins of one of the world's most famous prehistoric sites.
The circle was largely forgotten by mainstream archaeology until excavations led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson of University College London, conducted between 2017 and 2021, brought it into sharp focus. Parker Pearson's team, working as part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project and its successor research programmes, discovered that Waun Mawn was originally a much larger monument than it appears today. Their findings, published in the journal Antiquity in 2021, revealed that the circle once contained around 30 to 50 standing stones arranged in a ring approximately 110 metres in diameter — which would have made it one of the largest stone circles in Britain at the time of its construction, around 3400 to 3200 BCE. Crucially, the team found empty stone sockets in the ground where bluestones had once stood, and some of those sockets matched the dimensions of bluestones now present at Stonehenge. The geological signature of the Preseli Hills is already well established as the source of Stonehenge's famous bluestones, and Waun Mawn tightens that connection dramatically.
One of the most striking details to emerge from the excavations is the alignment of the circle's entrance. Waun Mawn appears to have been oriented toward the midsummer solstice sunrise, an alignment that is mirrored precisely at Stonehenge. This shared astronomical orientation strongly supports the theory that when a community of people migrated from this corner of Wales to the Salisbury Plain — perhaps bringing their ancestors' remains with them — they deliberately reconstructed their sacred monument in its new location, using the same stones and the same celestial alignment, carrying their spiritual landscape with them across the breadth of Britain.
In its present state, Waun Mawn survives as a partial arc of standing stones rather than a complete circle. Only four stones remain upright today, the tallest of which reaches little more than a metre in height, with several further recumbent or buried stones detectable on closer inspection. The stones are unworked dolerite, rough-textured and weathered to shades of grey, brown, and rust, streaked with lichen in silver-green and ochre. Standing among them on the open moorland, with the wind cutting across the heather and the vast sky overhead, there is a quietness here that feels qualitatively different from the tourist-busy experience of Stonehenge. The absence of crowds, fences, and infrastructure allows a rare intimacy with the stones — you can touch them, walk the full circumference of the ghostly ring, and let the scale of what once stood here settle over you slowly.
The surrounding landscape is hauntingly beautiful and integral to understanding the monument. The Preseli Hills, or Mynydd Preseli, form a ridge of ancient upland running across north Pembrokeshire, reaching around 500 metres at their highest points. The moorland around Waun Mawn is open and treeless, covered in heather, bilberry, and rough grass, with boggy hollows and rocky outcrops. Views extend across rolling hills in every direction, with the distant glitter of the sea occasionally visible on clear days. The area is rich in other prehistoric monuments — Carn Menyn, the rocky tor from which many of Stonehenge's bluestones are believed to have been quarried, lies only a few kilometres to the east, as does the hillfort of Foel Drygarn, with its Bronze Age cairns. The entire ridge feels layered with time, as though the Neolithic world has never been entirely buried.
Waun Mawn sits within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, though it is located in the inland upland section of the park rather than near the famous coastline. Access is on foot across open farmland and moorland, and the walk to the circle typically begins from a small parking area near the hamlet of Brynberian, roughly a mile to the south. The path is not always clearly marked and the terrain can be wet and uneven, so sturdy waterproof footwear is strongly recommended. There is no admission charge, no visitor centre, and no on-site interpretation, which preserves the site's atmosphere but means some advance research pays dividends. The site is on open access land managed under Welsh countryside legislation, making it freely and legally accessible throughout the year.
The best time to visit is late spring through early autumn, when the days are long and the moorland is most hospitable, though the circle can be reached year-round by those prepared for the conditions. A visit at midsummer, particularly around the solstice, carries particular resonance given the monument's orientation. Early morning visits reward the effort with low-angled light that rakes across the stones and makes the undulating ground — including those tell-tale empty sockets — far easier to read. The site sees a fraction of the visitor numbers of comparable prehistoric monuments elsewhere in Britain, which means that on a weekday, you may well have this extraordinary place entirely to yourself.