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Carreg Wen Fawr y Rugos cairn cemetery is a prehistoric burial monument located in Wales, protected as a scheduled ancient monument by Cadw under reference BR354. The site consists of multiple cairns constructed from stone gathered from the surrounding landscape, which sits upon bedrock of Lower Devonian age. This sandstone and conglomerate, formed during the Early Devonian period, would have provided the raw materials used in the cairn construction, with suitable stones naturally fractured and weathered at the surface available for gathering.
Cairn cemeteries of this type were established during the Bronze Age and represent communal or family burial grounds, with successive generations adding new cairns or reusing existing monuments over centuries. The grouped arrangement of cairns at this site reflects the importance of proximity to ancestral burial places and suggests sustained use of this location as a burial focus throughout the prehistoric period.
The monument's survival to the present day is a testament to the enduring nature of stone construction in the Welsh upland landscape. The site remains an important resource for understanding prehistoric mortuary practice and settlement patterns in this region, preserving evidence of communities whose lives were bound to the moorland environment surrounding these monuments.
Carreg Wen Fawr y Rugos cairn cemetery is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference BR354. View the official record →
Carreg Wen Fawr y Rugos cairn cemetery is a prehistoric burial monument located in Wales, protected as a scheduled ancient monument by Cadw under reference BR354.
Carreg Wen Fawr y Rugos 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.
Carreg Wen Fawr y Rugos 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 BR354.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Trefil Tramroad (5.2 km), Twyn Bryn March round cairn (5.2 km), Twyn Ceilog Round Cairn (5.5 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Carreg Wen Fawr y Rugos 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.
Carreg Wen Fawr y Rugos cairn cemetery stands on Lower Devonian Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Early Devonian. The rock here is sandstone and conglomerate, interbedded.