Gorsedd Altar - Llandudno, Wales, Great Britain.
N 53° 19.816 W 003° 49.854
30U E 444664 N 5909332
Gorsedd Altar and Bardic Circle - The stone altar, headstone, and eleven stone circle, are sited in Happy Valley, Llandudno, Wales.
Waymark Code: WMHNGT
Location: North Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/27/2013
Views: 3
The Bardic Circle and Stone altar in Llandudno are not several thousand years old. They arn't even a hundred years old. In fact, it was built in 1963 to celebrate the Llandudno Eisteddfod.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"The National Eisteddfod is traditionally held in the first week of August and the competitions are all held in the Welsh language. The Eisteddfod Act of 1959 allowed local authorities to give financial support to the event. Hundreds of tents, pavilions and little stands are erected in an open space to create the maes (field). The space required for this means that it is rare for the Eisteddfod to be in a city or town but instead it is held somewhere with more space. Car parking for day visitors alone requires several large fields, and many people camp on the site for the whole week. The festival has a heavy druidic flavour, with the crowning and chairing ceremonies for the victorious poets being attended by bards in flowing white costumes, dancing maidens, trumpet fanfares and a symbolic Horn of Plenty. However, the provenance of this ceremony is dubious: it owes its existence within the Eisteddfod structure to Iolo Morganwg, whose Gorsedd ceremonies were adopted by the Eisteddfod from 1819. Nevertheless, it is taken very seriously, and an award of a crown or a chair for poetry is a great honour. The Chairing and Crowning ceremonies are the highlights of the week, and are presided over by the Archdruid. Other important awards include the Prose Medal (first introduced in 1937).
If no stone circle is there already, one is created out of Gorsedd stones, usually taken from the local area. These stone circles are icons all across Wales and signify the Eisteddfod having visited a community. As a cost-saving measure, the 2005 Eisteddfod was the first to use a temporary "plastic stone" circle for the druidic ceremonies instead of a permanent stone circle. This also has the benefit of bringing the Gorsedd ceremonies on to the maes, as they were often held many miles away, unbeknownst to much of the public. The ceremonies may still be held elsewhere if the weather at the maes is not suitable." Text Source: (
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