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Gelli Burial Chamber is a prehistoric chambered round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference CM177. The monument sits upon bedrock formed from Llandovery rocks comprising mudstone, siltstone and sandstone, geological foundations typical of this Welsh region. Like other chambered cairns of the Neolithic period, it would have served as a communal burial place for a local community, its stone chamber designed to withstand the passage of centuries.
The monument consists of a circular cairn of stone surmounting an internal burial chamber, a structural type that emerged across Britain and Ireland during the fourth and third millennia before the present. The chamber itself, accessed through a passage or entrance, would have accommodated multiple inhumations over an extended period of use. Such monuments required substantial labour to construct, reflecting both the ritual importance of the dead and the social organisation of the societies that built them.
Today, Gelli Burial Chamber remains a significant survival of Wales's prehistoric heritage, testament to Neolithic burial practices and communal identity. Its preservation under statutory protection allows the monument to contribute to our understanding of early settled societies in Wales and the enduring human impulse to commemorate and house the dead with monumentality and care.
Gelli Burial Chamber is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference CM177. View the official record →
Gelli Burial Chamber is a prehistoric chambered round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference CM177.
Gelli Burial Chamber dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a chambered round cairn. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Gelli Burial Chamber 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 CM177.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Nant Gwyn, round cairn and standing stone to S of (3.6 km), Burnt Mound on Esgair Ferchon (5.4 km), Pen Cerrigdiddos Round Cairns (6.3 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Gelli Burial Chamber'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.
Gelli Burial Chamber stands on Llandovery Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Llandovery. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.