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Hafod Ithel Cairn Cemetery is a prehistoric cairnfield located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference CD132. The site comprises a group of burial cairns dating to the Bronze Age, representing a significant funerary landscape from the second millennium BC. Cairnfields of this type served as communal burial grounds and were typically constructed over generations, with successive cairns added to the cemetery as required.
The monument sits upon bedrock of Llandovery Rocks, an undifferentiated formation of sandstone and conglomerate in alternating beds. This geology would have provided locally available stone suitable for cairn construction, with the harder conglomerate and sandstone blocks stacked to form the characteristic mounded burial structures. The exposed stone outcrops typical of such terrain often made hilltop and moorland locations the preferred choice for Bronze Age cemetery sites.
The preservation of Hafod Ithel Cairn Cemetery reflects the remote upland character of the site, where extensive pastoral use rather than intensive agriculture has allowed the cairns to survive largely undisturbed. The grouping of multiple burial monuments in close proximity exemplifies the Bronze Age practice of establishing fixed funerary centres within territorial landscapes, anchoring community identity and ancestral connection to the land across successive generations.
Hafod Ithel Cairn Cemetery is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference CD132. View the official record →
Hafod Ithel Cairn Cemetery is a prehistoric cairnfield located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference CD132.
Hafod Ithel Cairn Cemetery dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a cairnfield. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Hafod Ithel Cairn Cemetery 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 CD132.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Two Cairns on Mynydd Bach (0.7 km), Moated Site at Trefenter (0.8 km), Hafod Ithel Deserted Rural Settlement (0.9 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Hafod Ithel Cairn Cemetery'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.
Hafod Ithel Cairn Cemetery stands on Llandovery Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Llandovery. The rock here is sandstone and conglomerate, interbedded.