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Carnau Gwynion cairn cemetery is a prehistoric monument comprising a group of burial cairns situated on Dinantian limestone bedrock in Wales. The underlying geology of undifferentiated carboniferous limestone with subordinate sandstone and argillaceous rocks would have been familiar to the communities who constructed these monuments, offering accessible stone for cairn building. Cairn cemeteries of this type typically date from the Neolithic or Bronze Age periods and represent centres of burial activity across generations, with individual cairns often marking the graves of prominent individuals or family groups.
The site's protected status under Cadw, the Welsh heritage monuments service, reflects its archaeological significance as a record of prehistoric funerary practice. The concentration of cairns at this location suggests a place of sustained ritual and social importance, where the physical landscape itself became a repository of ancestral memory. The limestone substrate, while weathered by millennia, continues to preserve the upstanding cairn structures and any archaeological deposits they contain.
Carnau Gwynion cairn cemetery is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference BR328. View the official record →
Carnau Gwynion cairn cemetery is a prehistoric monument comprising a group of burial cairns situated on Dinantian limestone bedrock in Wales. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference BR328.
Carnau Gwynion cairn cemetery dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a cairn cemetery. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Carnau Gwynion cairn cemetery 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 BR328.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Glynneath Gunpowder Works (5.8 km), Craig y Ddinas Hillfort (5.9 km), Dinas Silica Mine (6 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Carnau Gwynion cairn cemetery'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.
Carnau Gwynion cairn cemetery stands on Dinantian Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Mississippian. The rock here is limestone with subordinate sandstone and argillaceous rocks.