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Gorllwyn round cairns is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference BR384. Round cairns of this type typically date to the Bronze Age and served as burial monuments, constructed by mounding stone over cremated or inhumed remains. The cairn's construction would have made use of stone readily available from the surrounding landscape, which here rests upon Ashgill Rocks—a bedrock of mudstone, siltstone and sandstone formed during the Ashgill period. These sedimentary rocks, when frost-shattered and weathered, would have provided the stone material necessary for cairn construction.
The monument represents an important element of the Bronze Age funerary landscape, marking the presence of early communities in the Welsh hills. Cairns such as this often commanded views of surrounding terrain and adjacent water sources, both practical and symbolically significant in prehistoric settlement patterns. The Ashgill geology underlying the site would have influenced not only the available building materials but also the broader ecology of the area, affecting vegetation and water drainage patterns that shaped Bronze Age land use.
Today, Gorllwyn round cairns survives as a tangible connection to Wales's prehistoric past, its stone mound still visible across the landscape it helped define for its Bronze Age builders.
Gorllwyn round cairns is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference BR384. View the official record →
Gorllwyn round cairns is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference BR384.
Gorllwyn round cairns 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.
Gorllwyn round cairns 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 BR384.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Bryn round cairn (3.8 km), Bryn ring cairn (3.9 km), Garn Wen round cairn (5.8 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Gorllwyn round cairns'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.
Gorllwyn round cairns stands on Ashgill Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Ashgill. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.