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Foel y Geifr Cairn is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference ME245. The monument sits upon bedrock of Ashgill mudstone, siltstone and sandstone, geology that would have shaped both its construction and the landscape visible from its elevated position. Round cairns of this type typically date to the Bronze Age and served as burial monuments, with the stone mound concealing a central chamber or cist containing cremated or inhumed remains.
The cairn's builders would have quarried stone from the local Ashgill formation and surrounding slopes to construct the mound, making practical use of readily available materials. The choice of hilltop location is characteristic of Bronze Age funerary monuments, offering prominence in the landscape and visibility across considerable distances. Such positions also provided drier ground for construction and burial.
Today the cairn survives as a tangible record of prehistoric funerary practice in Wales. The monument's relationship to the underlying geology—the very bedrock that provided both building stone and determined settlement patterns in antiquity—remains evident in its physical form and siting within the Welsh landscape.
Foel y Geifr Cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference ME245. View the official record →
Foel y Geifr Cairn is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference ME245.
Foel y Geifr Cairn 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.
Foel y Geifr 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 ME245.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Pen y Gyrn Roman Road (4.5 km), Creigiau'r Llyn cairn cemetery (6.6 km), Caer Gai Roman Site (7 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Foel y Geifr 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.
Foel y Geifr Cairn stands on Ashgill Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Ashgill. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.