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Carn Pentyle-Hir & Adjacent Round Cairn is a prehistoric round cairn situated in Wales. The monument comprises two distinct structures, with the principal cairn known as Carn Pentyle-Hir alongside an adjacent round cairn. Both monuments rest upon bedrock of the Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation and South Wales Middle Coal Measures Formation, a complex geological sequence of mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete laid down during the Moscovian period. This coal-bearing substrate would have exposed exposures of harder stone suitable for cairn construction, as well as the ferricrete layers that often provided building material in prehistoric funerary monuments across South Wales.
The site is protected by Cadw, the Welsh Historic Monuments service, under reference GM402. Round cairns of this type are typically Bronze Age funerary monuments, though some may date from the Neolithic. The pairing of two cairns at this location suggests repeated use of the site for ceremonial burial practices across one or more prehistoric periods. The positioning of these monuments on the coal measures landscape reflects prehistoric communities' understanding of their local terrain and their choice of elevated or prominent locations for markers of the dead.
Carn Pentyle-Hir & Adjacent Round Cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference GM402. View the official record →
Carn Pentyle-Hir & Adjacent Round Cairn is a prehistoric round cairn situated in Wales. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference GM402.
Carn Pentyle-Hir & Adjacent 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.
Carn Pentyle-Hir & Adjacent 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 GM402.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Darren Fawr Round Cairns (3.2 km), Rhos-Gwawr cairn cemetery (5.5 km), Remains of Iron Furnace at Cwmaman (6.1 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Carn Pentyle-Hir & Adjacent 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.
Carn Pentyle-Hir & Adjacent Round Cairn stands on Pennine Middle Coal Measures Formation And South Wales Middle Coal Measures Formation (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Moscovian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.