Meini Gwyr

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 circle, dating to the Bronze Age (c. 2300 - 800 BC). It is located on a north east to south west ridge running along the southern flank of the Preseli hills thought to have been a major route way in prehistory. The circle is of an embanked form, comprising a broad, low, roughly circular bank 36.6m in diameter and up to 1m high that is known to have originally supported 17 standing stones set at intervals round its inner slope. Two stones survive on the east side, 1m and 1.7m high respectively, standing 6.5m apart. The bank has a narrow entrance on the west side. Excavations in 1936 showed there had been no associated ditch, that the bank had held an external stone revetment and that the entrance had been lined on each side by a form of palisade. In front of the entrance a pit contained a fill of clay and fine charcoal. Pottery recovered from a hearth overlaying one of the stone sockets indicated that the circle had gone out of use by the Middle Bronze Age.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric burial and ritual practices. There is a strong probability of the presence of both intact ritual and burial deposits, together with environmental and structural evidence which retain significant archaeological potential. The monuments value is enhanced by its focus as part of a significant number of other monuments on the ridge in the Glandy Cross area that form an important relic of a prehistoric funerary and ritual landscape.

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