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Gelli Gethin Round Cairn is a prehistoric round cairn situated in Wales and protected by Cadw as a scheduled monument under reference MG272. Round cairns of this type date from the Bronze Age and served as burial monuments, constructed by stacking stone to create distinctive dome-shaped or conical structures visible across the landscape. The cairn sits on bedrock composed of Ashgill Rocks, an undifferentiated sequence of mudstone, siltstone and sandstone formed during the Ashgill period of the Ordovician. This ancient foundation has weathered over hundreds of millions of years, providing the stable geological base upon which the cairn builders laid their stones.
The monument's construction reflects Bronze Age funerary practices across Wales, where such cairns typically covered individual or multiple inhumations, sometimes accompanied by pottery, tools or weapons. The building materials would have been sourced from stone naturally available in the surrounding landscape, exploiting the local geology to create a permanent memorial. The Ashgill mudstones and siltstones would have provided accessible stone for the builders' purposes.
As a scheduled monument, Gelli Gethin Round Cairn remains an important archaeological resource, preserving evidence of prehistoric settlement patterns and burial customs in the Welsh landscape. Its protection ensures the structure survives for future archaeological study and as a physical link to Bronze Age communities.
Gelli Gethin Round Cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference MG272. View the official record →
Gelli Gethin Round Cairn is a prehistoric round cairn situated in Wales and protected by Cadw as a scheduled monument under reference MG272.
Gelli Gethin 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.
Gelli Gethin 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 MG272.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Pen y Groes Uchaf Cairn (7.6 km), Bryn Du hut circle (8.3 km), Llyn y Tarw ritual complex (8.5 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Gelli Gethin 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.
Gelli Gethin Round Cairn stands on Ashgill Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Ashgill. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.