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Carn y Gigfran is a prehistoric round cairn situated in Wales on bedrock composed of Upper Devonian sandstone and conglomerate. The monument is protected by Cadw, the Welsh Historic Monuments service, under the reference CM259. Round cairns of this type date to the Bronze Age and typically served as burial monuments, constructed by heaping stones over cremated or inhumed remains.
The site's location on Devonian bedrock, formed during the Late Devonian period, places it within a landscape of weathered and fractured stone that would have made local quarrying practicable for the monument's construction. The interbedded nature of the underlying sandstone and conglomerate deposits would have provided mixed stone types suitable for cairn building. Such geological circumstances often influenced prehistoric settlement and monument placement, as accessible stone sources were essential to construction.
The exact dimensions and condition of Carn y Gigfran are not currently documented in available records, but as a scheduled Cadw monument it remains an important marker of Bronze Age funerary practice in the Welsh landscape. Its survival reflects both the durability of stone-built monuments and the value placed on preserving such structures as archaeological and cultural heritage.
Carn y Gigfran is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference CM259. View the official record →
Carn y Gigfran is a prehistoric round cairn situated in Wales on bedrock composed of Upper Devonian sandstone and conglomerate. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference CM259.
Carn y Gigfran 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 Gigfran 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 CM259.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Banwen Gwys Round Cairns (4.1 km), Carn Fadog round cairn (4.7 km), Cwm Twrch settlement and limekiln (5 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Carn y Gigfran'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 Gigfran stands on Upper Devonian Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Late Devonian. The rock here is sandstone and conglomerate, interbedded.