Moel Faban cairn cemetery

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 three small burial cairns, forming a cemetery probably dating to the Bronze Age (c.2300 BC - 800 BC) and situated within open moorland on the W-facing slopes of Moel Faban. The stone-built cairns are circular on plan and measure between 6m and 10m in diameter and up to 0.5m in height. The cairns have been inventoried as Moel Faban cairn A, situated to the NNE (SH 6315 6791); Moel Faban cairn B, situated to the SSW (SH 6314 6785); and Moel Faban cairn C, situated to the W (SH 6308 6785). The cairns have been disturbed in the past.

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 irregular and measures 90m from NNE to SSW by up to 58m transversely.