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Lorfa stone circle is a prehistoric monument located in Wales, protected by Cadw as a scheduled ancient monument under reference BR388. The circle belongs to a tradition of ritual and ceremonial sites that flourished across Britain during the Bronze Age, when communities marked significant landscapes with arrangements of stone.
The monument sits upon bedrock of the Millstone Grit Group, a sequence of mudstone, siltstone and sandstone formed during the Namurian period of the Carboniferous era. This underlying geology has shaped the character of the local landscape and would have influenced the selection and quarrying of stone for the circle's construction. The Millstone Grit's coarse texture and natural fracture planes made it a suitable material for megalithic building.
Stone circles served multiple purposes within prehistoric societies, functioning as gathering places, territorial markers and spaces for ritual observance tied to the calendar and celestial events. Lorfa's position within the Welsh landscape reflects the distribution of such monuments across upland and semi-marginal terrain, where Bronze Age communities invested considerable labour in creating enduring monuments within their territories.
Lorfa stone circle is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference BR388. View the official record →
Lorfa stone circle is a prehistoric monument located in Wales, protected by Cadw as a scheduled ancient monument under reference BR388.
Lorfa stone circle dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a stone circle. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Lorfa stone circle 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 BR388.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Abercrave Ironworks (3.4 km), Lefel Fawr Coal Adit (3.9 km), Ynysgedwyn Colliery, Fan House (4.1 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Lorfa stone circle'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.
Lorfa stone circle stands on Millstone Grit Group [See Also Migr], bedrock that formed in the Namurian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.