Country diary: An imposing stone with a giant past | Jim Perrin

Llowes, Powys: Many British pagan relics have been assimilated into Christian tradition, but few are as startling to see as St Meilig's CrossThe local Radnorshire bogeywoman in the 13th century was the giant Moll Walbee. Hay Castle's gatehouse was reputedly built by her in a single day. The story goes that, crossing the River Wye one day, she felt a piece of grit in her boot, took it out and hurled it across the river. It landed in the circular churchyard at Llowes, where it was long known as Moll Walbee's Stone: a 7ft-high menhir of hard, pale-grey sandstone.It is now inside the church of St Meilig, in this same village, but formerly it had been at Croesfeilliog, on the eastern spur of the Begwns above Llowes, beside the road between Clyro and Painscastle. I can imagine anxious travellers in the dusk on that lonely way crossing themselves as they hastened by. The menhir, like so many similar pagan relics in the British landscape, was assimilated into the Christian tradition, a pious monk having carved on to it an unusual wheel-cross design. Continue reading...