Gray Hill ( cy, Mynydd Llwyd) is a hill immediately to the north of the village of

Llanvair Discoed Llanvair Discoed ( cy, Llanfair Is Coed) is a small village in Monmouthshire, south-east Wales, 6 miles west of Chepstow and 10 miles east of Newport. History The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Lamecare'. The name means Ma ...

, Monmouthshire, South Wales, rising to above sea level.

Location

Gray Hill is on the eastern side of

Wentwood Wentwood ( cy, Coed Gwent), in Monmouthshire, South Wales, is a forested area of hills, rising to above sea level. It is located to the northeast of, and partly within the boundaries of, the city of Newport. Geology Wentwood is underlain b ...

Reservoir opposite Mynydd Alltir Fach which sits on the western side of the reservoir.

rises behind these two hills. The nearest large village or town is

Caerwent Caerwent ( cy, Caer-went) is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and 11 miles east of Newport. It was founded by the Romans as the market town of ''Venta Silurum'', an important sett ...

. The summit of the hill has views over the Caldicot Levels and

Severn estuary The Severn Estuary ( cy, Aber Hafren) is the estuary of the River Severn, flowing into the Bristol Channel between South West England and South Wales. Its high tidal range, approximately , means that it has been at the centre of discussions in t ...

, as well as inland.

Geology

Geologically the hill forms a detached part of a longer north and west-facing sandstone scarp which runs roughly northeast through Monmouthshire from

Llandevaud Llandevaud is a small hamlet in east Newport, Wales with a church about a half mile from the village centre, going down towards The Foresters Oaks, a restaurant and public house, previously named the Rising Sun. Near the church was a primary scho ...

to the Wye valley south of Monmouth. Gray Hill is formed from various

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

s of the

Old Red Sandstone The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...

(or 'ORS') which were laid down during the Devonian period. The northern and western slopes and the lower southern slopes are formed by the lower ORS Brownstones Formation.

Unconformably An unconformity is a buried erosional or non-depositional surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, indicating that sediment deposition was not continuous. In general, the older layer was exposed to erosion for an interval ...

overlying these rocks are the upper ORS Quartz Conglomerates which are pebbly in nature, themselves overlain by the sandstones of the Tintern Sandstone Group. Each of these layers is tilted to the south.

Remains

Gray Hill is known locally for its prehistoric remains which include standing stones, a stone circle at a height of about 900 feet above sea level and overlooking the

Severn Estuary The Severn Estuary ( cy, Aber Hafren) is the estuary of the River Severn, flowing into the Bristol Channel between South West England and South Wales. Its high tidal range, approximately , means that it has been at the centre of discussions in t ...

, as well as cairns, field boundaries and enclosures including a D-shaped

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

enclosure. The stone circle is approximately 32 feet in diameter and has been dated to the

, circa 4000 years ago. There is also

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

evidence.

References

* Chris Barber : Exploring Gwent (A Walkers Guide to Gwent Land of History and Legend) 1984

External links

Archaeoastronomy of stone circles in South Wales, incl. Gray HillThe Megalithic Portal on Gray Hill Stone CirclePhoto of Gray Hill in summerGray Hill Virtual Geocache location
Mountains and hills of Monmouthshire {{Monmouthshire-geo-stub

Location

Geology

Remains

See also

References

External links