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Coed-y-Cwm Chambered Cairn is a prehistoric chambered tomb located in Wales, protected by Cadw under reference GM116. This monument represents a form of communal burial practice established across Britain and Ireland during the Neolithic period, roughly 4000 to 3000 BC. The site lies on bedrock composed of Triassic sandstone and conglomerate, interbedded deposits that formed over 200 million years ago in ancient arid environments before being exposed by erosion.
Chambered cairns typically comprised a stone burial chamber, roofed with large capstones, surrounded by a mound of rubble and earth. These monuments served as focal points for collective burial and ritual within early farming communities. The construction method exploited locally available stone, and at Coed-y-Cwm the builders would have utilised the Triassic rocks from the underlying bedrock, extracting and shaping stone to form the structural elements of the chamber.
As a protected monument, Coed-y-Cwm retains archaeological significance for understanding Neolithic Welsh society, settlement patterns and attitudes towards the dead. The site contributes to the broader distribution of chambered cairns across Wales, revealing how early communities invested labour in monumental structures that endured across generations.
Coed-y-Cwm Chambered Cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference GM116. View the official record →
Coed-y-Cwm Chambered Cairn is a prehistoric chambered tomb located in Wales, protected by Cadw under reference GM116.
Coed-y-Cwm Chambered Cairn dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a chambered tomb. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Coed-y-Cwm Chambered 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 GM116.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Barry Castle (6.9 km), Site of Medieval Mill & Mill Leat Cliffwood (6.9 km), Westward Corner Round Barrow (7 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Coed-y-Cwm Chambered 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.
Coed-y-Cwm Chambered Cairn stands on Triassic Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Triassic. The rock here is sandstone and conglomerate, interbedded.