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Croes y Forwyn cairns is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference MG262. The monument sits upon bedrock of Caradoc Rocks, comprising mudstone, siltstone and sandstone formations dating from the Caradocian period. This geology would have presented considerable challenges to those who constructed the cairn, as the parent rock was hard and difficult to work, making the quarrying and transport of stone a labour-intensive undertaking.
Round cairns of this type typically functioned as burial monuments during the Bronze Age and earlier periods, serving as enduring markers within the landscape. The construction of such monuments required substantial community effort, particularly in upland or marginal terrain where suitable building stone had to be gathered and moved into place.
The specific circumstances of this cairn's construction and use remain to be fully determined through archaeological investigation, but its survival and protection reflect the importance of such monuments in understanding prehistoric settlement and burial practices in Wales.
Croes y Forwyn cairns is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference MG262. View the official record →
Croes y Forwyn cairns is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference MG262.
Croes y Forwyn cairns 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.
Croes y Forwyn cairns 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 MG262.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Soldiers' Graves Pillow Mounds (3.2 km), Maes Dyfnant Round Cairn (3.8 km), Cae'r-Mynach Round Cairn (5.1 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Croes y Forwyn cairns'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.
Croes y Forwyn cairns stands on Caradoc Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Caradocian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.