Trefwri Standing Stone
Also known asTrefwry or Trefwri, Eastern Stone (B)
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo MadMedico · CC BY-SA 2.0Photo taken at this location (Wikimedia Commons)Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Trefwri Standing Stone is a menhir in Isle of Anglesey, United Kingdom. It is also known as Trefwry or Trefwri, Eastern Stone (B). It lies at 53.1854° N, 4.2820° W.
Catalogue recordSources and licences
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Trefwri Standing Stone
ContextSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Britain and Ireland are rich in standing stones; the Atlas records many hundreds. Together with Brittany they hold about 50,000 examples across the Atlantic fringe of Europe, and many stand singly in fields. In Ireland they are usually in farmers' fields and are heavily worn by weather and by livestock rubbing against them. The stones are usually difficult to date. They were put up in many periods of prehistory as part of the wider megalithic cultures, and any single stone may be Neolithic, Bronze Age or later. Theories about their purpose remain speculative: rituals, territorial markers, or markers in a system of belief. The regional background, “British and Irish standing stones”, is given below.
DatingSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
No scientific date has been published for this site. Monuments of this type in United Kingdom are generally dated 2800 BCE to 1800 BCE; the site itself may fall inside or outside that range.
Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.
Setting
37 other recorded monuments lie within 10 km (0 within 1 km, 13 within 5 km), 18 of them of the same type. In Isle of Anglesey, United Kingdom, 28 of the 47 recorded monuments are of this type.
The nearest recorded monuments are Perthi-Duon Burial Chamber (1.1 km south, chambered cairn); Clearance Feature N of Bodowyr Cromlech (1.4 km west, megalithic mound); Bodowyr Burial Chamber (1.4 km west, chambered cairn); Brynsiencyn Round Barrow (1.5 km south-east, megalithic mound).
ProtectionSources for this section
Sources for this section
Heritage status: scheduled monument; National Monument of Wales.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
British and Irish standing stones
Britain and Ireland are rich in standing stones; the Atlas records many hundreds. Together with Brittany they hold about 50,000 examples across the Atlantic fringe of Europe, and many stand singly in fields. In Ireland they are usually in farmers' fields and are heavily worn by weather and by livestock rubbing against them. The stones are usually difficult to date. They were put up in many periods of prehistory as part of the wider megalithic cultures, and any single stone may be Neolithic, Bronze Age or later. Theories about their purpose remain speculative: rituals, territorial markers, or markers in a system of belief.
Some stand in groups. The Calanais Stones on the Isle of Lewis, built around 2750 BCE, form a circle with a tall central monolith and several rows extending outwards in a cross-shaped plan, on a ridge overlooking Loch Roag. The Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire include the King's Men, the King Stone and the Whispering Knights, three monuments built in the Neolithic and Bronze Age.
Folklore: the names of the Rollright Stones come from stories told since the early modern period; legend holds that the King Stone comes alive at the stroke of midnight. At Calanais one tradition says the stones were giants who would not convert to Christianity, and in the seventeenth century the people of Lewis called them fir bhrèige, "false men". Another legend says that on midsummer morning an entity known as the Shining One walks the length of the avenue. These are traditions, not memories of the builders.
The Atlas treats isolated stones as undated unless they have been excavated.
When visiting, look at how a stone stands in relation to the landscape and to any nearby monument.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: Callanish Stones, Wikipedia: Rollright Stones, Wikipedia: List of menhirs · CC BY-SA 4.0
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.

The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Photographs
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 2800–1800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for menhirs in United Kingdom; this site has not been dated itself. Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
United Kingdom
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 53°11′07″ N, 4°16′55″ WFor a GPS or map app: 53.18535, -4.28200
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Perthi-Duon Burial Chamber4000–2400 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Clearance Feature N of Bodowyr Cromlech4000–800 BCE
Bodowyr Burial Chamber4000–2500 BCE
Brynsiencyn Round Barrow4000–800 BCEBryn Gwyn stones3200–2500 BCE
Tyddyn-Bach Standing Stone2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Bryn-Celli-Ddu Standing Stone2800–1800 BCE
Site of Cairn South of Bryn Celli Ddu4000–800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q122218106wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Perthi-Duon Burial Chamber1.1 km S
- Clearance Feature N of Bodowyr Cromlech1.4 km W
- Bodowyr Burial Chamber1.4 km W
- Brynsiencyn Round Barrow1.4 km SE
- Bryn Gwyn stones1.6 km SW
- Tyddyn-Bach Standing Stone3.7 km NE
- Bryn-Celli-Ddu Standing Stone3.8 km NE
- Site of Cairn South of Bryn Celli Ddu3.9 km NE
- Bryn Celli Ddu Cairn (Plough Levelled)3.9 km NE
- برين كللي ددو4.0 km NE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Compiled from open records (Wikidata, CC0; OpenStreetMap, ODbL) and a regional background article based on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Wikidata Q122218106CC0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0