Bryn ring 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 ring cairn, probably dating to the Bronze Age (c.2300 BC - 800 BC) and situated within the centre of a shallow terrace on the SW side of the summit of the Bryn ridge, on the S flanks of Gorllwyn mountain. The terrace is overlooked on all sides except the SW, where there are fine views over the ridges and slopes opposite. The small ring cairn is circular on plan and measures about 7m in diameter over a well-defined stony ring bank 1.5m in thickness and 0.4m in height. The ring bank contains much quartzitic stone. The cairn does not appear to have been disturbed in the past.

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 ring cairn with the many other cairns that can be found within the surrounding area, including the adjacent round cairn (BR382), the large summit burial cairns on the Gorllwyn (BR384) and the prominent round cairn on Garn Wen (BR386) on the summit of the hill on the opposite side of the valley to the SW.

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 20m in diameter.