Dyffryn Mymbyr cairn circle

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 cairn circle, probably dating to the Bronze Age (c.2300 BC - 800 BC) and situated within enclosed moorland on the leading edge of an E-facing terrace on the N side of the Nant Gwryd, in the bottom of the Dyffryn Mymbyr. The grass-covered stone built cairn is circular on plan and measures about 5m in diameter and up to 0.4m in height, within a kerb of at least five outwardly leaning thin orthostats. There is a central stone cist, measuring 1.45m from NNW to SSE by 0.6m transversely and 0.4m in depth. The cairn circle would appear to surmount the W half of an earlier platform cairn, which is ill-defined and robbed throughout - except on the W side, where a kerb of at least six stones is visible. This platform cairn probably measured about 15m in diameter. There is a large drystone sheep shelter situated immediately to the S. This sheep shelter incorporates a large upright stone within its fabric; this stone, which stands up to 0.8m in height, may be a prehistoric standing stone associated with the cairn circle.

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 a buried prehistoric land surface. The importance of the monument is further enhanced by the visible structural phasing - and by the group value formed by the proximity of the cairn to the associated probable standing stone.

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 circular and measures 25m in diameter.