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Garn Wen round cairn is a prehistoric funerary monument in Wales, constructed from stone gathered across ground underlain by Ashgill rocks, a sequence of mudstones, siltstones and sandstones laid down in the late Ordovician period. The cairn's builders would have exploited the naturally fractured stone emerging across the moorland, creating a substantial pile of rubble to mark and seal a burial or burials beneath. This method of construction, drawing on immediately available local materials, is characteristic of Bronze Age cairn-building across upland Wales, where such monuments cluster on higher ground with similar geological substrates.
Round cairns served as enduring territorial markers and ancestral focal points for the dispersed agricultural communities of prehistoric Wales. The monument's survival and its subsequent identification as an important cultural resource led to its scheduling for protection by Cadw, the Welsh heritage authority, under reference BR386. This designation recognises its significance as an archaeological record of prehistoric burial practice and social organisation in the Welsh landscape.
Garn Wen round cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference BR386. View the official record →
Garn Wen round cairn is a prehistoric funerary monument in Wales, constructed from stone gathered across ground underlain by Ashgill rocks, a sequence of mudstones, siltstones and sandstones laid down in the late Ordovician period. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference BR386.
Garn Wen round 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.
Garn Wen round 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 BR386.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Pen Twr ring cairn (1.3 km), Fforest Castle Mound (2 km), Pen-y-Garn-Goch Long Barrow (3.5 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Garn Wen round 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.
Garn Wen round cairn stands on Ashgill Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Ashgill. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.