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Llandarcy Round Cairn is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected as a scheduled monument by Cadw under reference GM291. The monument sits upon bedrock of the South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, a Westphalian-age deposit of mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete. This geological foundation would have been exposed or near-surface at the time of the cairn's construction, shaping the available stone for building and the landscape encountered by those who raised this burial structure.
Round cairns are characteristic monuments of the Bronze Age in Wales and beyond. Built as burial monuments, they typically comprise a mound of stone heaped over a primary burial pit or cist, often accompanied by grave goods. The cairn's form served both as a permanent marker on the landscape and as a focal point for commemoration and ritual activity.
The Llandarcy Round Cairn remains an important record of Bronze Age funerary practice in South Wales. Its survival in the industrial landscape of the region, underlain by the productive coal and ironstone deposits that would shape the area's later history, makes it a significant testament to the depth of human settlement and cultural expression in the landscape.
Llandarcy Round Cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference GM291. View the official record →
Llandarcy Round Cairn is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected as a scheduled monument by Cadw under reference GM291.
Llandarcy 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.
Llandarcy 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 GM291.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including St Margaret's Chapel (1.9 km), Remains of Brunel Dock, Briton Ferry (2.5 km), Tir-Gwyllt Second World War Barrage Balloon Site (3.8 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Llandarcy 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.
Llandarcy Round Cairn 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.