© Mapbox · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Boundary data © Cadw
Bedd Gwyl Illtyd is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference BR326. Round cairns of this type are among the earliest monumental structures in the British landscape, typically constructed during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods as burial monuments or ceremonial markers. The cairn at this location would originally have consisted of stones gathered and heaped to form a distinctive mound, often covering a burial deposit or central chamber.
The monument sits upon Lower Devonian bedrock composed of mudstone, siltstone and sandstone formed during the Early Devonian period. These sedimentary rocks, which underlie much of south Wales, would have provided ready sources of stone for cairn construction, their natural fracturing and weathering creating suitable building materials for prehistoric communities.
The name Bedd Gwyl Illtyd, meaning "Illtyd's grave" in Welsh, reflects local tradition associating the cairn with early religious history, though such place-name attributions typically postdate the monument by many centuries. The cairn remains an important marker of prehistoric land use and burial practice in the Welsh landscape, representing the continued investment of effort by ancient communities in creating enduring monuments within their territory.
Bedd Gwyl Illtyd round cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference BR326. View the official record →
Bedd Gwyl Illtyd is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference BR326.
Bedd Gwyl Illtyd round cairn dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a round cairn. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Bedd Gwyl Illtyd round cairn is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Cadw — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Wales. The official designation reference is BR326.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Storey Arms Anti-invasion Defences (7 km), Rhyd Uchaf Hillfort (8.7 km), Maen Llia Stone (8.8 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Bedd Gwyl Illtyd round cairn's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Bedd Gwyl Illtyd round cairn stands on Lower Devonian Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Early Devonian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.