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Garnedd Lwyd is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw as monument number GM462. The cairn sits upon bedrock formed from the South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, a Carboniferous sequence of mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete laid down during the Westphalian period. This geology would have constrained the builders' choice of stone, limiting them to materials naturally occurring or readily quarried from the immediate locality.
As a round cairn, Garnedd Lwyd belongs to a widespread monument type erected across upland Britain during the Bronze Age, typically serving as burial monuments or ceremonial markers. The form represents a significant investment of labour, with stones gathered and heaped into a mound, often incorporating internal structures. The positioning of such cairns frequently reflects careful consideration of the surrounding landscape and visibility across the terrain.
The monument's survival to the present day, despite millennia of exposure to the Welsh climate and the geological instability of its coal measures bedrock, testifies to the solidity of its original construction. Garnedd Lwyd remains an important record of prehistoric funerary or ritual practice in this region, preserving evidence of Bronze Age communities and their relationship with the upland landscape they inhabited.
Garnedd Lwyd is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference GM462. View the official record →
Garnedd Lwyd is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw as monument number GM462. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference GM462.
Garnedd Lwyd 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.
Garnedd Lwyd 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 GM462.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Five Round Barrows on Garth Hill (6.9 km), Caerffili Mountain Shaft Mounds (7 km), Castell Morgraig (8 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Garnedd Lwyd'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.
Garnedd Lwyd stands on South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.