Pant y Maen Round Barrow

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

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

Pant y Maen round barrow comprises the remains of an earthen built round barrow. Round barrows normally date to the Bronze Age (c. 2300 - 800 BC). They are primarily a funerary monument, and are usually circular in plan with a rounded profile, and generally contain one or more cremations or inhumations. Pant y Maen round barrow is situated at the edge of a pasture field and has been truncated in the south-east by the public road. The mound is approximately 16m in diameter NE-SW, 11.5m NW-SE, and 1.5m high. A stone, 1.5m high, stands on the summit of the mound. The stone was removed to be used as a gatepost in the nineteenth century, but then replaced. A yew tree was planted shortly after the stone was replaced, and this now conceals both the stone and much of the barrow.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric burial and ritual practices. The features are an important relic of a prehistoric funerary and ritual landscape and retain significant archaeological potential. There is a strong probability of the presence of both intact ritual and burial deposits, together with environmental and structural evidence. Barrows may be part of a larger cluster of monuments and their importance can further enhanced by their group value.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.