Hafen standing stone pair

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

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

The monument comprises the remains of a stone alignment, situated upon the summit of the ridge of Hafen, on the SW-facing flanks of Drum Ddu. The alignment comprises two standing stones and a small burial cairn, aligned from NE to SW along the ridge of the summit. The two standing stones are similar in size, measuring 0.9m in height, 0.7m in width and 0.3m in thickness; they are situated 17.5m apart, with that to the SW leans towards the NW, while that to the NE leans towards the SW. The small burial cairn is situated 45m to the NE (at SN 96238 59614) and measures 4.5m in diameter and 0.2m in height.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric burial and ritual practices. The alignment may have served to guide the eye or the ceremonial procession - it is an important relic of a prehistoric funerary and ritual landscape and retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of both intact burial and ritual deposits and environmental and structural evidence. The importance of the monument is further enhanced by the topographical association of the cairn with the many other cairns and cemeteries that can be found within the surrounding area, including the cairn cemetery on Banc Ystrad-wen (BR094), the large summit burial cairn on Drum Ddu, Carn-y-geifr (BR095), the nearby ring cairns of Carn Pantmaenllwyd (BR379) and Llethr Waun-lwyd (BR365) and the stone row of Saith Maen (BR065).

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. It is circular and measures 90m in diameter.