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Carnedd y Ddelw Cairn is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected as a scheduled monument by Cadw under reference CN398. The monument sits upon Ordovician felsic lava bedrock, ancient volcanic material that formed during the Ordovician period over 440 million years ago. This geological foundation has weathered and fractured over millennia, creating the landscape in which the cairn builders constructed their monument.
Round cairns of this type typically served as burial monuments during the Bronze Age, though some may date to the late Neolithic. The structure would have been built by piling stones, likely gathered from the surrounding terrain, into a distinctive mound form. The volcanic bedrock beneath the site would have provided suitable stone for construction, though weathering patterns across such ancient lava would have required builders to work with naturally fragmented material.
The monument's survival to the present day reflects both the durability of stone construction and the protective status it has held in recent times. Its preservation allows visitors and researchers to engage with the physical evidence of prehistoric funerary practice in Wales. The specific name Carnedd y Ddelw suggests local significance, connecting this Bronze Age burial monument to the Welsh landscape and its long-inhabited history.
Carnedd y Ddelw Cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference CN398. View the official record →
Carnedd y Ddelw Cairn is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected as a scheduled monument by Cadw under reference CN398.
Carnedd y Ddelw 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.
Carnedd y Ddelw 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 CN398.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Settlement, N of Cwm Eigiau (6.6 km), Carnedd Dafydd cairn (8.7 km), Carnedd Dafydd, cairn to SW of (8.9 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Carnedd y Ddelw 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.
Carnedd y Ddelw Cairn stands on Unnamed Extrusive Rocks, Ordovician, bedrock that formed in the Ordovician. The rock here is felsic lava.