Carn Menyn 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 well-preserved chambered cairn, probably dating to the Neolithic (c. 4,400 BC - 2,900 BC) and situated within open moorland on a slight terrace on the upper SW-facing slopes of Rhester Gerrig, immediately below Carn Menyn. The stone-built cairn is ovoid on plan, with a flattened rear on the NE end and a rubble-filled forecourt visible on the SW. The cairn measures about 13m from NE to SW by about 12m transversely and stands up to 1.5m in height on its SW side. The cairn has subsided into a water channel, its central chamber and NW side having collapsed towards the NW. A large capstone rests above the collapsed chamber; this measures 2.7m in length by 2.3m transversely and up to 0.6m in thickness. Two possible splayed stretches of faced walling are visible forming a rubble-filled forecourt.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric burial and ritual. Chambered tombs are thought to have been communal burial structures belonging to local farming community, signifying reassuring tenure, ancestry and a sense of place. Most would have originally consisted of a burial chamber and entrance passage covered by an earthen barrow or stone cairn. The terms dolmen and cromlech are sometimes used to describe those burial chambers that have lost their covering mound and yet retain their capstones. Chambered tombs were built and used by local communities over long periods of time and there appear to be many regional traditions and variations in shape and construction. The Carn Menyn chambered cairn is a well-preserved and important relic of a prehistoric funerary and ritual landscape and may represent an early Portal Dolmen. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of both intact burial or ritual deposits and environmental and structural evidence, including the possible forecourt.

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 30m in diameter.