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Nant y Llyn cist is a prehistoric stone burial chamber located in Wales and protected by Cadw as a scheduled monument. The cist survives as evidence of funerary practice during the Bronze Age or earlier periods, when individual or small-group interments were commonly marked by arrangements of stone slabs forming box-like chambers. Such cists typically contained cremated or inhumed human remains, sometimes accompanied by grave goods.
The monument sits upon bedrock formed from Llandovery rocks, an undifferentiated sequence of mudstone, siltstone and sandstone deposited during the Llandovery period of the Ordovician. This geology would have provided the stone materials available to the cist's builders, who selected and worked local slate-like rocks to construct their burial structure. The landscape character of this part of Wales, shaped by these sedimentary formations, influenced both settlement patterns and the practical methods of monument construction.
The cist's survival to the present day, despite centuries of agricultural use and weathering, attests to the durability of its stone construction. Cadw's protection of the site recognises its archaeological significance as evidence of prehistoric burial customs and social organisation in the Welsh landscape.
Nant y Llyn cist is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference RD211. View the official record →
Nant y Llyn cist is a prehistoric stone burial chamber located in Wales and protected by Cadw as a scheduled monument. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference RD211.
Nant y Llyn cist dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a cist burial. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Nant y Llyn cist 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 RD211.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Cairns and Standing Stones on Carnau Cefn-y-Ffordd (8.8 km), Saith-Maen Standing Stones (8.8 km), Hafotau Settlement on Bryn Melys (8.9 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Nant y Llyn cist'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.
Nant y Llyn cist stands on Llandovery Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Llandovery. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.