Cof Cymru: National Historic Assets of Wales · Wales
Round Cairn on Bessie's Meadow
Llangennith, Llanmadoc and Cheriton, Swansea, Wales
The record
- Designation
- Scheduled monument
- Site type
- Round Cairn
- Period
- Prehistoric
- Date of designation
- 26 January 1996
- Community
- Llangennith, Llanmadoc and Cheriton
- Unitary authority
- Swansea
- Country
- Wales
- Coordinates (centre of the scheduled area)
- 51.58737, -4.28381
- SAM number
- GM498
- Cadw record number
- 1476
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 5 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1636 "Cornubia : Devonia, Somersetus, Dorcestria, Wiltonia, Glocestria ..." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
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 a burial cairn, probably dating to the Bronze Age (c. 2300 - 800 BC). The round cairn is located on open moorland at Rhossili Down at about 180m above sea level, on the line of a dry stone wall separating the upland known as Bessie's Meadow from Rhossili Down. It is 7m in diameter and 0.3m high. The cairn is constructed of boulders and turf, with a stone kurb and possible central cist.
The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric burial and ritual practices. 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, together with environmental and structural evidence. Cairns 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.
Nearby in the register
- Sweyne's Howe chambered cairnsChambered Tombunder 1 mi
- Burnt Mound on Rhossili DownBurnt Moundunder 1 mi
- Enclosure on Rhossili DownEnclosureunder 1 mi
- Rhossili Old RectoryDomesticunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.