The rocks remain but do not give up their secrets

The golden gorse and purple heather of the mountain moorland were at their best this afternoon, a few swallows wheeled across the cloudless sky and shorn sheep have returned to network their familiar paths.

The angle of the sun emphasized this mysterious notched groove on a boulder below the rock pile of Carn Enoch. It has excited speculation that it might represent prehistoric talley marks or a solar calendar...   However another opinion suggests it was created naturally (and in fact there is a sequence of fainter grooves running along the boulder in parallel to this one.) It's unlikely we'll ever know the truth.

At another of the  crags, Garn Fawr, I spotted something  new: a Christian-style cross incised into the stony face of one of the dolerite boulders (see extras). Below it were etched illegible marks which might represent letters or numbers. It must have taken a lot of hard work to achieve but how to view this? As vandalism or as art?  Will it become part of the human history of the place or is it a scar on the  natural  grandeur?  Maybe it will weather away or maybe it will be a puzzle in the distant future.


(It's not the first time that this monumental setting has hosted human input: I was reminded of a blip I did years ago about the same spot, and with a curious story attached. Be warned it's a long read.)