Ambrosden, Amesbury/Uisneach and Dinas Emrys: The Moving of a Sacred Center

The Catstone or 'Omphalos' at Uisneach Hill

It has occurred to me that in the Welsh story of Dinas Emrys (itself a place confused or conflated with Stonehenge's Amesbury as a supposed 'Fort of Ambrosius') we are being told about a sort of sacred center of Gwynedd. While this may seem obvious to some, or is at least acknowledged as being implied, I'm not sure anyone has as yet really delved into its more profound significance.  I hope to make at least a brief attempt at that here.

Unfortunately, we must commence with our examination of this issue with Geoffrey of Monmouth's account of the origin of Stonehenge. He claimed the stones for the monument came from Mount Killaurus in Ireland, a site that has properly been identified with the Hill of Uisneach:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2018/06/uisneach-middle-place-that-is-above-or.html

Thanks to the efforts of modern scholars, we now know exactly where at least the remarkable bluestones of Stonehenge were obtained.  And one of these quarries holds special interest for Arthurians:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2019/feb/quarrying-stonehenge-bluestones-dated-3000-bc

Why special interest?  Because the Bedd Arthur or 'Grave of Arthur' is located literally right next to the quarry under consideration. Bedd Arthur is a fascinating site:

https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/284/details/bedd-arthur-prehistoric-ritual-site

Readers consulting that Website will note that archaeologists have sought to link the Bedd Arthur monument with Stonehenge itself:

"Survey work by Wainwright and Darvill for the SPACES project has compared the oval stone setting at Bedd Arthur to the first oval setting of Bluestone orthostats built at Stonehenge. Oval stone settings are a recognised form of monument in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages of Britain, but remain rare."

The Stonehenge Bluestone Quarry of Carfn Goedog near Bedd and Carn Arthur

Bedd Arthur

Craig Rhos-y-felin in Relation to Carn Goedog

When Geoffrey decided to link Stonehenge to the omphalos of Ireland, he was telling us in no uncertain terms that Stonehenge was the omphalos of Britain.  It is interesting that the Preseli quarries are in Dyfed, and the sub-Roman dynasty of Dyfed was founded by the Irish Deissi. 

The Welsh went beyond Geoffrey's schema and sought to explain how the dragons had come to Dinas Emrys.  In LLUDD AND LLEUELYS (Lleuelys being 'Lleu-uelys'), we are told the dragons came from Oxford.  This seems strange, until we realize that Ambrosden is located in Oxfordshire.  Ambrosden is from Ambresdone, 'Ambr's hill.' The same Ambre is found in the early spellings for Amesbury.  Dinas, of Dinas Amesbury, is from Welsh din, itself ultimately related to a root that means 'hill.'

So, from the hill of the Divine or Immortal One in Oxfordshire, the dragons are taken to the hillfort of same in Arfon.  We must bear in mind that Dinas Emrys is a reflection of Amesbury with its Stonehenge omphalos.

We thus have four sacred centers.  Ambrosden may be ignored.  It was chosen merely because it resembled both Amesbury and Dinas Emrys.  So we have 1) the Hill of Uisneach, the center of Ireland 2) Amesbury/Stonehenge, the center of England 3) Bedd Arthur on Preseli Mountain, the center of Dyfed and perhaps the prototype of or inspiration for Stonehenge and 4) Dinas Emrys in Gwynedd.

The problem with Dinas Emrys as a sacred center is immediately evident: it it is a hillfort and shows no sign of ever being a ritual center.  However, there is a ring fort at Uisneach.  See http://uisneach.ie/history/.  This particular fort is associated with Tuathal Techtmar, the king who was present for awhile at Craig-y-Dinas/Caer Dathal in Wales (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/01/caer-dathal-and-its-ancient-ruler.html).  And Caer Dathal, in turn, is linked with both the bear god Math son of Mathonwy - and with Arthur.

In a new article, I have suggested that part of the snake legend of Dinas Emrys actually came from Llyn Nadroedd or Lake of Snakes on the opposite side of Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa from the hillfort.

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-snakes-in-pool-of-dinas-emrys.html

My question after writing this piece was simply: could Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa, like the Hill of Uisneach and Preseli Mountain, be the actual sacred center of Gwynedd?  Granted, Stonehenge is on a plain, not a hill or mountain. Still, Vespasian's Camp (https://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=219627) is a hillfort at Amesbury.  It is probably the bury or fortified settlement that gave its name to Amesbury.

Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa, according to Wikipedia, is "the highest mountain in Wales, at an elevation of 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles outside the Scottish Highlands."  If anyplace deserves the designation as an omphalos, it would be Snowdon.

Dinas Emrys just happened to be the closest hillfort to Snowdon with continuous occupation from the Iron Age through the Roman and early Medieval (Dark Age) periods.  In this respect, it stood in the same relationship to Snowdon as the royal palace in Ireland did to Uisneach.  

In past blog posts and in my books, I have suggested that the snakes/serpents (later dragons) of the Dinas Emrys story are a fusion of the dragons or chieftains inside the cremation urns and either loci genii or loci paterfamiliases. Roman genii were shown in the form of snakes.  They could be linked to water, as in the story preserved in Sozomen (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-final-big-reveal-on-red-and-white.html) and in the Irish story of the begetting of Conchobar (https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/12/an-astonishing-discovery-concerning.html).

So, if we may allow for a folkloristic combination of the 'dragons' or warriors/chieftains of Dinas Emrys and the genius loci of Gwynedd, centered at Snowdon, which towered over Dinas Emrys, and which may have further manifested itself as the snakes of Llyn Nadroedd, then we may nicely account for the meanings of all of these sacred mysteries.