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The Ancient Stones of Wales – Chris Barber and John Godfrey Williams
Chapter 17  STRANGE LIGHTS AND OBJECTS

The first definite indication that there may be something physical at these sites was recorded on a sunny afternoon in October 1959 when Justin Delair and John G. Williams were taking photographs of a standing stone in a roadside hedge opposite Peterstone Court in the Parish of Llanhamlach, near Brecon, Powys (SO 089267). The stone is of a greyish colour, 4 feet 6 inches high and about 2 feet wide. Both men took photographs with different cameras at about the same time and nothing unusual was noted.

When Justin Delair's photographs were developed and printed in monochrome, one of them was most peculiar. It showed a white blur between the stone and John G. Williams, who was standing about 3 feet away. The blur of light extended from the bottom to the top of the stone, where it tapered slightly and this was seen against the background of the nearby hedge. This result would have been dismissed as a freak, because there was no sensible explanation for the white blur apart from camera or film fault, had it not been for two colour photographs taken at the same time by John G. Williams with a 35mm camera. They both showed a dark purple-blue around the base of the stone which faded away towards its top.

It was reasonable to suppose that whatever had caused the strange result on the monochrome photograph of Justin Delair had also showed up as a dark purple-blue colour on the two colour transparencies taken at the same time by John G. Williams.

In such situations the photographic experts usually blame a bad film or camera leaking light or something that they cannot explain. It is thought that the films, in both cameras, were registering a concentration of ultra-violet light which would not be visible to the human eye in the outdoor surroundings without wearing special glasses. Unfortunately the negative of Justin Delair's photograph was lost when he moved house. One of the colour slides was sent to The Ministry of Defence for an opinion and was mislaid. The other was sent to an architect in London and was stolen when his office was burgled.

This incident at Llanhamlach opened up a new line of research and many more photographs of prehistoric stone monuments were taken in the hope that the certain conditions that seemed to be necessary to obtain similar kinds of photographs, could be ascertained. Interesting results were slow in coming, but a few unusual photographs were obtained in England and Wales over the following years to reward the patience of the photographers. In Wales, the best photographs to show ultra-violet light at prehistoric standing stones were at the following sites.

• Coetan Arthur Dolmen at Newport, Dyfed (SN 061395) on 8th July 1.962.
• Llieu r Dolmen in the Parish of Penrhos Lligwy,, Anglesey (SH 501861) in May 1965.
• An unrecorded standing stone named Warrior Stone in the Preseli Hills in the Parish of Meline,  Dyfed (SN 138330) in July 1977.
• Maen Hir called St. Arfan's Stone at Llanfon Fawr in Powys (SN 975552) in June I 966.
• Arthur's Stone, the noted dolmen on Cefn Bryn at Reynoldston, West Glamorgan (SS -491905), in March 1984.

A systematic search was made in all books which showed prehistoric standing stone photographs to see if any featured signs of unusual light patches which may have been caused by a concentration of ultra-violet light. Only two examples were found, but these are significant as strong independent evidence to support the view that at certain times there are strange lights in the vicinity of these ancient monuments.

The first was in a rare booklet called Portfolios of Photographs of the Cromlechs of Anglesy and  Caernarvonshire (1900), which has an excellent collection of photographs of dolmens or cromlechs and some standing stones, but there is a lack of detail of the whereabouts of some of these. The pages and photographs are not numbered and on the one photograph entitled Coetan Arthur Cromlech (W. View) near Caernarvon, which is in the Parish of Llanfair-Is-Gaer, Gwynedd (SH 515660), there is a clear patch of light at the bottom right of the huge capstone which cannot be explained as sunlight judging from the position of the shadows in other parts of this photograph. It is of interest that this illustration indicates that the phenomena of concentrated ultra-violet light was occurring before 1900.