Cae Du platform cairn

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument.

The monument comprises the remains of an exceptionally interesting burial cairn, probably dating to the Bronze Age (c.2300 BC - 800 BC) and situated in a prominent position on a terrace on the NE-facing slopes of Moel Eilio and overlooking the Afon Porth-Llwyd valley. The grass-covered platform cairn is circular on plan and measures about 13m in diameter and up to about 1.2m in height, over a slight ring bank following the rim of the platform and a partial stone circle offset from the centre. The stone circle may well have been added later - while it closely follows the line of the ring bank on the NE arc, there is a gap of up to 1.2m in width between the line of the circle and the line of the ring bank on the S arc. At least ten orthostats are visible, several being of considerable length (up to 1.8m) but none being more than 0.5m in height. The cairn has partially collapsed or has been disturbed in the past, with visible slumping on the NE arc. It boasts fantastic views of the Afon Porth-Llwyd valley below and the Conwy valley to the NE.

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. Such evidence could include a buried prehistoric land surface, structural phasing (perhaps detailing different periods of use) and associated pollen paleo-environmental evidence from the adjacent boggy areas.

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 45m in diameter.