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Carn Wen Round Cairn is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw as a scheduled monument. The structure was built across bedrock composed of Ashgill Rocks—undifferentiated mudstone, siltstone and sandstone formed during the Ashgill epoch of the Ordovician period. This geological foundation, weathered and fractured over millions of years, would have provided ready supplies of stone for the cairn's construction, making the site geologically suited to monument building.
Round cairns of this type typically date to the Bronze Age and functioned as burial monuments, often marking the graves of individuals of status within prehistoric communities. The weathered Ashgill bedrock surrounding the site would have presented a distinctive landscape of exposed rock and thin soils, typical of upland Welsh terrain where such monuments are commonly found.
The cairn survives today as testament to Bronze Age funerary practice and landscape use in Wales. Its protection by Cadw under reference CD258 recognises its importance as a scheduled monument, preserving evidence of prehistoric settlement patterns and burial customs within the Welsh uplands.
Carn Wen Round Cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference CD258. View the official record →
Carn Wen Round Cairn is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw as a scheduled monument. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference CD258.
Carn Wen 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 Wen 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 CD258.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Cwmsymlog Lead Mine (9 km), Standing Stones c.600m NE of Cwmdarren (9.1 km), Blaen Cwmsymlog Lead and Silver Mine (9.1 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Carn Wen 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 Wen Round Cairn stands on Ashgill Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Ashgill. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.