Coed-y-Cwm Chambered Cairn

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 chambered tomb, dating to the Neolithic period (c. 4400 BC - 2900 BC). Chambered tombs were built and used by local farming communities over long periods of time. There appear to be many regional traditions and variations in shape and construction.

The ruined burial chamber consists of one large and two smaller stones to the south of the larger one. This larger stone is pitted and measures, c. 2.7 in length, a maximum of 1m wide and a maximum of 0.9m in thickness, lying slightly tilted towards the southwest. On its north eastern side it is propped up by small stones beneath it of which one at the southern end is larger than the rest.

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. Chambered tombs 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.