Cof Cymru: National Historic Assets of Wales · Wales
Cistfaen cairns
Rhayader, Powys, Wales
A scheduled monument in Rhayader, Powys, recorded as Round Cairn (Prehistoric).
The record
- Designation
- Scheduled monument
- Site type
- Round Cairn
- Period
- Prehistoric
- Date of designation
- 30 June 2004
- Community
- Rhayader
- Unitary authority
- Powys
- Country
- Wales
- Coordinates (centre of the scheduled area)
- 52.37937, -3.67086
- SAM number
- RD209
- Cadw record number
- 4085
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
5 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1608 map "(13) Cambriae Typus." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
Historical maps covering this location
- 1608 · (13) Cambriae Typus. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1830 · V.3:11-15:XV. Britisches Reich. A. Kon: England. b. Frstenthum Wales: Shire: 37-40 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1883 · Watershed map England, Wales 3. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1898 · 179 Rhyader (Hills) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1901 · Sheet 14. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
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 two burial cairns, probably dating to the Bronze Age (c.2300 BC - 800 BC) and situated within open moorland on the S-facing side of the summit of Cistfaen. The stone built cairns are both roughly circular on plan. The northernmost cairn (Cistfaen cairn A) measures about 8.5m in diameter and up to 0.6m in height. The southernmost cairn (Cistfaen cairn B) measures about 13.5m in diameter and up to 1.1m in height.
The monuments are of national importance as important relics of a prehistoric funerary and ritual landscape and for the potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric burial and ritual. The monuments retain significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of both intact burial or ritual deposits and environmental and structural evidence, including traces of a buried prehistoric land surface underneath.
The area scheduled comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. It is rectangular and measures 65m from NNE to SSW by 30m transversely.
Nearby in the register
- Cistfaen barrowsRound Barrowunder 1 mi
- Maen Hir cairn cemeteryCairn Cemeteryunder 1 mi
- Carn y Groes cairnRound Cairn1 mi
- Craig y Lluest cairn cemeteryRound Cairn1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.