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Carn Castell y Meibion is a prehistoric ring cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference GM586. Ring cairns of this type typically date to the Bronze Age and comprise a circular arrangement of stones with an open or low central area, distinguishing them from the solid mounds of earlier round barrows. They served as communal or family burial monuments, often used over several generations.
The monument sits upon bedrock of the South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, which dates to the Westphalian period. This geology comprises mudstone, siltstone and sandstone interspersed with coal seams, ironstone and ferricrete deposits. The stony nature of this landscape would have made the stone materials for cairn construction readily available from the local bedrock and surface outcrops, a practical consideration that influenced where prehistoric communities chose to establish their burial sites.
The survival of this ring cairn reflects both the durability of stone construction and the protective designation that has preserved it as an important evidence of Bronze Age funerary practice and settlement patterns in Wales.
Carn Castell y Meibion ring cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference GM586. View the official record →
Carn Castell y Meibion is a prehistoric ring cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference GM586.
Carn Castell y Meibion ring cairn dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a ring cairn. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Carn Castell y Meibion ring 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 GM586.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Remains of Iron Furnace at Cwmaman (4.8 km), Brynbychan Round Cairn (5 km), Ring Cairn 350m W of Penrhiw Caradoc, Llanwonno (5.2 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Carn Castell y Meibion ring 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.
Carn Castell y Meibion ring cairn stands on South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.