Ty-Isaf Long Barrow

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The monument consists of the remains of a chambered long cairn dating to the early Neolithic (c. 4,200BC - 3,000BC). The cairn was excavated by W.F. Grimes in 1936 who revealed it to comprise a trapezoidal-shaped stone structure measuring 30m in length and 16m wide, orientated north-south. The cairn is wider at the northern end where horns enclose a forecourt and a false entrance portal constructed using large sandstone slabs. The body of the cairn comprises sandstone blocks and slabs loosely packed, overlain by large slabs laid flat, contained within two drystone revetment walls. A rotunda, or circular cairn, is built into the southern end of the cairn. It measures 10m by 7m and may have originated as a free-standing structure before being enclosed within the body of the long cairn. It is also constructed from sandstone blocks and slabs, contained within double revetment walling. The long cairn contains fours chamber: two lateral chambers set on opposite sides of the cairn, around halfway down its length; a large gallery chamber entered from the SE corner of the monument and contained within the rotunda; and a ruined chamber that faces east at the southern end of the rotunda. The layout of the monument is characteristic of the Black Mountains group of Severn-Cotswold tombs, of which Ty Isaf forms a part.

The two lateral chambers are roughly rectangular in plan and constructed using slabs of local sandstone, with entrance passages that cut through the revetment walls. On the floor of the western chamber the partial remains of 11 individuals were found, together with flint arrowheads, a polished stone axe, a bone pin and some sherds of Neolithic pottery. The eastern chamber contained the remains of two individuals together with sherds of Neolithic pottery while the entrance passage contained much of the skeleton of a child and the partial remains of two adults. Chamber 3, within the rotunda contained fragments of 13 individuals and some Neolithic pottery sherds, while the ruined chamber at the southern end of the cairn contained a deposit of cremated bone and sherds of Bronze Age pottery. Dating of the bones from the long cairn suggest that the first burials took place around 3500 BC, with burial activity continuing into the Bronze Age 2000 years later.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric burial and ritual practices. The features are an important relic of a prehistoric funerary and ritual landscape and retain significant archaeological potential. There is a strong probability of the presence of both intact ritual and burial deposits, together with environmental and structural evidence. Ty Isaf is one of a cluster of long cairns in the Black Mountains and their importance is enhanced by their group value.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.