© Mapbox · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Boundary data © Cadw
Garn Coch is a neolithic chambered long cairn located in Wales and protected as an ancient monument by Cadw. The cairn was constructed during the neolithic period, when communities across Britain built monumental tombs for their collective dead. These long cairns served both as repositories for human remains and as territorial markers within the landscape, their impressive linear forms visible across the countryside for many miles.
The monument sits upon bedrock of Lower Devonian rocks, formed during the Early Devonian period. The underlying geology comprises interbedded sandstone and conglomerate, which would have provided the builders with stone for construction, though the cairn itself would have been raised from locally gathered material. This geological foundation has ensured the stability of the monument through five thousand years of weathering and environmental change.
The chambered structure within Garn Coch reflects the characteristic design of neolithic burial monuments in this region, with an internal stone chamber accessed through a passage and surrounded by the protective mass of the cairn. Such monuments represent significant investments of labour by neolithic communities and provide evidence of their social organisation, spiritual beliefs and landscape use. The cairn remains a prominent archaeological record of early farming communities who first settled and shaped the Welsh landscape.
Garn Coch is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference BR028. View the official record →
Garn Coch is a neolithic chambered long cairn located in Wales and protected as an ancient monument by Cadw. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference BR028.
Garn Coch dates from the neolithic period, and is classified as a chambered long cairn. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Garn Coch 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 BR028.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Brake Engine on Hill Pits Tramroad Incline (8.4 km), Pwll Du Tunnel (8.5 km), Iron and coal patching at Pen-ffordd-goch (8.7 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Garn Coch'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.
Garn Coch stands on Lower Devonian Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Early Devonian. The rock here is sandstone and conglomerate, interbedded.