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Cae Du platform cairn is a prehistoric platform cairn situated in Wales and protected as a scheduled monument by Cadw under reference CN365. The monument comprises a deliberately levelled platform constructed from stone, a characteristic form of burial monument found across upland Britain and Ireland during the Neolithic and early Bronze Age periods. Platform cairns were typically built on hillsides and slopes, with earth and rubble heaped and contained to create a relatively flat ceremonial or funerary surface.
The monument is built upon Ordovician bedrock formed from mafic lava and tuff, ancient volcanic rocks laid down approximately 485 to 443 million years ago when Wales occupied a tropical ocean setting. This hard, dark igneous foundation would have provided a stable base for the cairn's construction and shaped the local stone assemblage available to the builders.
The platform monument represents significant investment of labour in a specific landscape location, reflecting the ritual and social importance of the site to prehistoric communities. Cae Du survives today as evidence of Neolithic or early Bronze Age burial practices and the sophisticated understanding these societies possessed of working with their local geology and terrain.
Cae Du platform cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference CN365. View the official record →
Cae Du platform cairn is a prehistoric platform cairn situated in Wales and protected as a scheduled monument by Cadw under reference CN365.
Cae Du platform cairn dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a platform cairn. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Cae Du platform 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 CN365.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Hafna Lead Mine Mill (6.7 km), Bwlch Cowlyd cairn (6.8 km), Vale of Conwy Lead Mine (6.9 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Cae Du platform 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.
Cae Du platform cairn stands on Unnamed Extrusive Rocks, Ordovician, bedrock that formed in the Ordovician. The rock here is mafic lava and mafic tuff.