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Carn-y-Defaid Round Cairns is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference MM209. Round cairns of this type typically date to the Bronze Age, serving as burial monuments that would have held cremated or inhumed remains within their stone structure. The cairn sits upon bedrock of the Millstone Grit Group, a Namurian-age formation composed of mudstone, siltstone and sandstone that characterises much of the Welsh upland geology.
The monument's construction would have involved gathering stone from the surrounding landscape, likely quarried or collected from the abundant gritstone outcrops present in this terrain. The Millstone Grit's fractured nature makes it suitable for cairn construction, as blocks could be readily obtained without formal quarrying. This particular site's choice of location reflects the Bronze Age practice of placing burial monuments on elevated or visually prominent ground.
As a protected monument, Carn-y-Defaid Round Cairns contributes to our understanding of prehistoric burial practices and settlement patterns in Wales. The upland setting, typical for cairns of this period, suggests the surrounding landscape supported Bronze Age pastoral and agricultural communities whose monuments continue to mark the countryside today.
Carn-y-Defaid Round Cairns is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference MM209. View the official record →
Carn-y-Defaid Round Cairns is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference MM209.
Carn-y-Defaid Round Cairns 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-Defaid Round Cairns 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 MM209.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Blaenafon Ironworks (2.2 km), Capel Newydd, Blaenavon (site of) (2.3 km), Aaron Brute's Level and Iron Bridge (2.5 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Carn-y-Defaid Round Cairns'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-Defaid Round Cairns stands on Millstone Grit Group [See Also Migr], bedrock that formed in the Namurian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.