Carn Wen 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 fine burial cairn, probably dating to the Bronze Age (c.2300 BC - 800 BC) and situated within open moorland on the S side of the plateau of Cefn Bach, below and to the E of Gwar y Ty. The partially grass-covered stone built cairn commands a good view to the SSW over the valley below (now containing the Craig Goch Reservoir). It measures 12.5m in diameter and about 0.2m in height. It is likely that this monument is a platform cairn, its level top crowned by a later burial cairn. This stone-built burial cairn is offset slightly to the N of the centre of the platform cairn. It measures about 8.5m in diameter and is up to 0.3m in height; several definite kerbstones are visible around the W side of the cairn and particularly on the NW arc. A small drystone shelter has been constructed on the E side of the surmounting burial cairn.

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. The importance of the monument is further enhanced by the visible structural phasing - and by the by the group value formed by the proximity of the cairn to the nearby monument of a similar date, Carn Nant-y-Ffald cairn (RD207).

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 32m in diameter.