Craig y Dullfan ring 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 ring cairn, probably dating to the Bronze Age (c.2300 BC - 800 BC) and situated within open moorland on a SW-facing terrace below Banc Lechwedd-Mawr and above the Afon Hyddgen. The well-preserved ring cairn is circular on plan and measures about 6.3m in diameter within a grass-covered stony ring bank about 0.9m in thickness and up to 0.2m in height. The interior is level and appears to have been deliberately infilled with stones. A possible conjoined cairn is situated immediately to the NE; this cairn measures 6m in diameter and about 0.3m in height. A ruinous drystone shelter and modern marker cairn have been built into its summit.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric burial and ritual practices. The monument is well preserved and is an important relic of a prehistoric funerary and ritual landscape. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of both intact burial or ritual deposits and environmental and structural evidence. The association of the ritual ring cairn and probable burial cairn - and the apparent structural phasing within the ring cairn itself - further increase the archaeological potential of the site.

The area scheduled comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. It is circular and measures 28m in diameter.