Y Foel Cairns

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The monument comprises two burial cairns, probably dating to the Bronze Age (c.2300 BC - 800 BC) and situated within improved pasture on the rounded summit of Y Foel. The grass-covered burial cairns are circular on plan. The burial cairn to the S (Y Foel cairn A) measures 11m in diameter and up to 0.5m in height. The cairn has been disturbed in the past, presumably by antiquarian investigation; a large stone cist is visible in its centre. The cairn to the N (Y Foel cairn B) measures 9m in diameter and up to 0.5m in height. The cairn has been disturbed in the past; a stone cist is visible in its centre.

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 importance of the monument is further enhanced by the visible structural detail - and by the group value formed by the proximity of the two cairns to each other.

The scheduled areas comprise the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. Area A, centred on Item A (Y Foel cairn A, SH 8011 5049), is circular and measures 22m in diameter. Area B, centred on Item B (Y Foel cairn B, SH 8017 5060), is circular and measures 28m in diameter.