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Darren Fawr Round Cairns is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference GM287. Round cairns of this type were constructed as burial monuments during the Bronze Age, typically serving as focal points for interment and commemoration within their landscape. The monument stands upon bedrock of the South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, a geological sequence laid down during the Westphalian period of the Carboniferous era. This bedrock comprises alternating deposits of mudstone, siltstone and sandstone interspersed with bands of coal and ironstone, overlain in places by ferricrete. The underlying geology would have directly influenced the availability of building stone and the character of the surrounding terrain visible to those who constructed and used this cairn.
As with other round cairns of the prehistoric period, the monument would originally have consisted of a mound of stone heaped over a burial or series of burials, with the precise form and internal arrangement determining its archaeological significance. The exposed coal and ferricrete within the local bedrock may have been visible in outcrops, offering the builders stone for the cairn's construction. The monument's continued survival and formal protection reflects its importance as evidence of Bronze Age burial practice and settlement in this part of Wales, providing material testimony to prehistoric communities whose presence in the landscape extended across many generations.
Darren Fawr Round Cairns is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference GM287. View the official record →
Darren Fawr Round Cairns is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference GM287.
Darren Fawr Round 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.
Darren Fawr Round 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 GM287.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Remains of Iron Furnace at Cwmaman (4.2 km), Ring Cairn 350m W of Penrhiw Caradoc, Llanwonno (4.5 km), Brynbychan Round Cairn (4.6 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Darren Fawr Round 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.
Darren Fawr Round Cairns stands on South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.