Hafod-y-Dre Stone Rows and 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 a stone row and a cairn, which probably date to the Bronze Age (c. 2300 - 800 BC).

Hafod y Dre Stone Row
Approximately 120 small stones are set into the turf and aligned generally in rows NE-SW, incompletely covering an area of about 20m square. They occupy relatively dry ground between a modern wall/ditch and former field bank 8-10m to the NW and wet ill-drained ground to the SE and S. The north-westernmost row of stones seems to point towards a mutilated cairn c.8m to the SW. The stones occur singly and are in every case but one, a boulder 0.6m by 0.4m and 0.9m high, of a generally uniform size. Distances between the stones vary between 0.5m and 1.8m. A clear pattern of regularity is discernible although the pattern is incomplete and obscured by turf. Ploughing has taken place on the lower slopes of the field they occupy but not in the vicinity of the stones.

Hafod y Dre Cairn
An irregular heap of soil and stones 5.5m in diameter N-S and approximately 0.3m high is located 8m SW of the north-westernmost row of the stone row. There is an untidy hole 0.8m by 0.9m across in its centre. Its composition of large stones is exposed.

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. Stone rows are often 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.