Cof Cymru: National Historic Assets of Wales · Wales
Y Garn cairns
Betws Garmon, Gwynedd, Wales
The record
- Designation
- Scheduled monument
- Site type
- Round Cairn
- Period
- Prehistoric
- Date of designation
- 30 June 2004
- Community
- Betws Garmon
- Unitary authority
- Gwynedd
- Country
- Wales
- Coordinates (centre of the scheduled area)
- 53.05099, -4.16305
- SAM number
- CN358
- Cadw record number
- 4050
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesLlyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of WalesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 5 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1795 "To Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn Bart ... the map of the six counties of North Wales is most humbly inscribed by his obedient humble servant" (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru – The National Library of Wales).
Cadw's description
Summary description and reason for designation
The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument.
The monument comprises two large burial cairns, probably dating to the Bronze Age (c.2300 BC - 800 BC) and situated within open moorland on the summit of Y Garn. The stone built cairns are circular on plan and measure about 10m in diameter and up to about 2m in height. The cairns have both been disturbed in the past, with the construction of drystone shelters around hollows dug into the centres. Both cairns command extensive views. The cairns have been inventoried as Y Garn cairn A (SH 551 526), the easternmost of the pair; and Y Garn cairn B (SH 550 525), the westernmost of the pair.
The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric burial and ritual. The monument 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 or ritual deposits and environmental and structural evidence, including buried prehistoric land surfaces.
The area to be scheduled comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. It is rectangular and measures 75m from NE to SW by 35m transversely.
Nearby in the register
- Drws y Coed Copper MineCopper Mineunder 1 mi
- MilestoneTransportunder 1 mi
- Drws y Coed Prehistoric SettlementUnenclosed hut circleunder 1 mi
- BwthynDomesticunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.