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Carn y Bugail and Carn Felen is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales, constructed over bedrock of Dinantian limestone with subordinate sandstone and argillaceous rocks. The monument is protected by Cadw, the Welsh Historic Monuments service, under reference BR277. Round cairns of this type typically date to the Bronze Age and served as burial monuments, their stone construction allowing them to endure across millennia.
The cairn's siting upon Dinantian bedrock is characteristic of upland Bronze Age burial practice in Wales, where stony ground provided both ready building material and naturally elevated positions suited to monumental purposes. The underlying geology of limestone with interbedded sandstone and mudstone would have influenced the quarrying and transport of stones used in the cairn's construction, as builders selected suitable material from the immediate landscape.
The monument preserves evidence of prehistoric funerary practices and the Bronze Age settlement and land-use patterns of this Welsh region. Its survival to the present day, despite the weathering effects of centuries, reflects the durability of stone-built structures and the relative isolation of many upland cairn sites from intensive land disturbance.
Carn y Bugail and Carn Felen is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference BR277. View the official record →
Carn y Bugail and Carn Felen is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales, constructed over bedrock of Dinantian limestone with subordinate sandstone and argillaceous rocks. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference BR277.
Carn y Bugail and Carn Felen 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 y Bugail and Carn Felen 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 BR277.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Merthyr Tramroad Tunnel (Trevithick's Tunnel) (9.3 km), Cyfarthfa Canal Level (9.4 km), Cwm Glo Chapel (9.7 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Carn y Bugail and Carn Felen'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 y Bugail and Carn Felen stands on Dinantian Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Mississippian. The rock here is limestone with subordinate sandstone and argillaceous rocks.