© Mapbox · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Boundary data © Cadw
Esgair Beddau cairns is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw as monument RD216. The site sits upon Llandovery rocks, a geological formation of interbedded sandstone and conglomerate dating to the Llandovery period. This underlying bedrock would have been the natural substrate available to the monument's builders.
Round cairns of this type represent a widespread funerary tradition across Britain and Ireland during the Bronze Age. These stone-built mounds typically covered inhumation or cremation burials and often served as focal points for ritual activity and commemoration across generations. The construction and maintenance of such monuments required significant communal effort.
The Llandovery bedrock geology of the site would have influenced both the character of the surrounding landscape and the stone materials available for cairn construction. The interleaving of sandstone and conglomerate deposits would have provided the builders with suitable stone for assembling the mound. The monument remains an important record of prehistoric funerary practice and landscape use in Wales.
Esgair Beddau cairns is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference RD216. View the official record →
Esgair Beddau cairns is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw as monument RD216. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference RD216.
Esgair Beddau 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.
Esgair Beddau 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 RD216.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Standing Stone above Craig Rhiwnant (7.8 km), Prehistoric Enclosure & Settlement Site on Craig y Llysiau (8 km), Nant-y-Garw Lead Mine (8.4 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Esgair Beddau 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.
Esgair Beddau cairns stands on Llandovery Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Llandovery. The rock here is sandstone and conglomerate, interbedded.