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Carn Fach, Esgair Wen is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected as an ancient monument by Cadw under reference MG088. The monument sits upon Llandovery Rocks, a sandstone and conglomerate bedrock of Llandovery age, which provided the raw material for its construction. The stony nature of this geological foundation made the upland location suitable for cairn-building, typical of Bronze Age funerary or ritual monuments across the Welsh landscape.
Round cairns such as this served primarily as burial monuments, with the heaped stones covering burial cists or cremation deposits. The choice of this exposed upland site reflects the importance of visibility and permanence in the Bronze Age ceremonial landscape. The underlying Llandovery bedrock, with its mixed sandstone and conglomerate formation, would have supplied stones of varying sizes suitable for constructing the cairn's durable structure.
Today, Carn Fach, Esgair Wen remains a significant element of Wales's prehistoric heritage, offering insight into Bronze Age burial practices and the use of upland terrain. Its protected status ensures the preservation of this monument for future study and public understanding of prehistoric Welsh communities and their relationship with the landscape.
Carn Fach, Esgair Wen is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference MG088. View the official record →
Carn Fach, Esgair Wen is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected as an ancient monument by Cadw under reference MG088.
Carn Fach, Esgair Wen 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.
Carn Fach, Esgair Wen 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 MG088.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Cistfaen cairns (2.3 km), Cistfaen barrows (2.5 km), Ffos Gau Ring Cairn (3 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Carn Fach, Esgair Wen'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 Fach, Esgair Wen stands on Llandovery Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Llandovery. The rock here is sandstone and conglomerate, interbedded.