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Llechwedd Du Round Cairn is a prehistoric funerary monument located in Wales, protected by Cadw under reference MG270. The cairn sits upon bedrock composed of Wenlock Rocks, a formation of sandstone and conglomerate layers deposited during the Wenlock period of the Paleozoic era. This solid geological foundation of interbedded stone would have been partially visible to the prehistoric builders who constructed the cairn, shaping their choice of location and building materials.
Round cairns of this type typically date to the Bronze Age and served as burial monuments for high-status individuals or family groups. Their construction involved gathering stones from the surrounding landscape to heap over a burial chamber or cremation deposit. The Wenlock bedrock beneath Llechwedd Du would have provided readily accessible stone, though the builders would have needed to work with the conglomerate and sandstone available locally.
The monument's preservation in the Welsh landscape has secured its protection under Cadw's guardianship, recognizing its significance as evidence of prehistoric funerary practice and settlement patterns. The cairn remains an important marker of ancient land use in this region, its stone structure testifying to the labour invested by Prehistoric communities in honouring their dead.
Llechwedd Du Round Cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference MG270. View the official record →
Llechwedd Du Round Cairn is a prehistoric funerary monument located in Wales, protected by Cadw under reference MG270.
Llechwedd Du 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.
Llechwedd Du 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 MG270.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Tryfel Cairns and Stone Setting (0.3 km), Mynydd Dyfnant Stone Alignment (1.8 km), Cae'r Lloi Round Barrow (3.9 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Llechwedd Du 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.
Llechwedd Du Round Cairn stands on Wenlock Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Wenlock. The rock here is sandstone and conglomerate, interbedded.