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Esgair Draenllwyn Round Cairn I is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference MG294. The monument sits on bedrock of Llandovery age, a formation of interbedded sandstone and conglomerate that provides the underlying geology of the site. This stone-rich foundation would have supplied material readily available to the cairn's builders.
Round cairns of this type represent burial monuments constructed during the Bronze Age, typically covering inhumation or cremation burials beneath a mound of stones. The Llandovery bedrock exposed at Esgair Draenllwyn reflects the upland terrain characteristic of such monumental sites in Wales, where cairns were frequently erected on higher ground commanding views across the surrounding landscape.
The monument's survival and official protection recognise its significance as evidence of Bronze Age funerary practice and social organisation in this region. The specific geology of its location—the erosion-resistant sandstone and conglomerate layers—has helped preserve the cairn's form and structure across millennia, allowing archaeologists to study how prehistoric communities utilised the natural resources of their environment when constructing monuments to their dead.
Esgair Draenllwyn Round Cairn I is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference MG294. View the official record →
Esgair Draenllwyn Round Cairn I is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference MG294.
Esgair Draenllwyn Round Cairn I 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 Draenllwyn Round Cairn I 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 MG294.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Esgair Draenllwyn Round Cairn II (0.5 km), Bryn y Gadair round cairn (3.6 km), Dinas Camp (5.5 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Esgair Draenllwyn Round Cairn I'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 Draenllwyn Round Cairn I stands on Llandovery Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Llandovery. The rock here is sandstone and conglomerate, interbedded.