Monument record MHG32097 - Trench - Allt Ghimmer

Trench Cutting.
A variation of the theme of Feature 245 (above). This time, however, a 4m diameter, low, dry, heather, moss and lichen-covered knoll, protruding from the surrounding, open boggy moorland, has two spade-cut trenches, perpendicular to each other, dissecting the knoll into equal quarters (see Plate 35). The arms of the cross are 2m long, 0.3m wide and 0.2m deep, and the perfectly cut peat sods (4 in each arm) have all been upturned and neatly and methodically laid in lines along the clockwise edges of each arm. The centre sod has carefully been laid upside down, where the trenches intersect, in the centre of the cross. The trenches trend 149 degrees and, exactly perpendicular, 059 degrees.

Again, this is not recent work, as a quite luxuriant cover of lichen occurs both in the trench itself, but especially so on the upturned peat sods. The rate of lichen growth is not thought to be particularly high in such an exposed location at an altitude of around 400m. Also again, the purpose of this precision cut and carefully made feature remains mysterious, but is probably connected to the existence of the adjacent grouse butts. <1>