Carn Pantmaenllwyd cairn

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 well-preserved and infilled ring cairn, probably dating to the Bronze Age (c.2300 BC - 800 BC) and situated on a gently sloping terrace on the SW-facing flanks of Drum Ddu, with fine views over a fertile saddle in the valley sides to the SW. The ring cairn is circular on plan and measures about 17m in overall diameter and between 0.5m in height on its upslope (E) side and 1.5m in height on its downslope (W) side. The interior of the cairn has been infilled with uniformly small rubble and a stony ring bank is visible around the whole of the E half, measuring c. 3m in thickness. Although the cairn has been disturbed in the past, with several hollows visible within its uneven interior, the majority of the bass of the cairn appears to be largely intact.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric burial and ritual practices. Excavated examples have shown these monuments to be essentially ceremonial - although with a consistent link with the burial of the dead (some cremation burials have been revealed). Rituals involving the burning and deposition of charcoal, perhaps symbolic of the funeral pyre, would seem to have been important. The well preserved monument is an important relic of a prehistoric funerary and ritual landscape. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of both intact burial or 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 similar ring cairn on Llethr Waun-lwyd (BR365) and the stone rows of Saith Maen (BR065) and Hefen (BR378).

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 30m in diameter.