Protected Preseli bluestone being 'robbed' from hills

Preseli bluestones are being illegally removed from protected quarries in Pembrokeshire, "robbing" Wales of its history, geologists have warned.

Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority is urging people to stop removing them from sites such as Carn Menyn in the Preseli Hills.

The stones, from the same site as those used in Stonehenge's inner ring, are said to be "disappearing".

The area is part of the Mynydd Preseli Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Park ranger Richard Vaughan said: "It is very sad to think that to many, the stones are very important, yet to others they are a possible source of income and taken away from where they belong."

The park's culture and heritage manager, Phil Bennett added: "If somebody took a hammer and started bashing chunks off a bluestone at Stonehenge there would be an outcry.

"To me, what is happening at Carn Menyn is just the same."

Archaeologist, Prof Geoff Wainwright, said: "As an archaeologist, Preseli is of far greater interest to me than any single monument.

"When a piece of bluestone is removed from the crags at Carn Menyn, unique information about the past is lost and cannot be recovered. We have all been robbed."