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Pen-Rhiw-Angharad Round Cairns is a prehistoric cairnfield located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference GM276. The monument comprises multiple round cairns typical of Bronze Age burial practice across upland Britain. The site sits upon bedrock of the South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, deposits laid down during the Westphalian period in a deltaic environment, now exposed as mudstone, siltstone and sandstone interspersed with coal seams, ironstone and ferricrete. This hard, iron-rich geology would have presented particular challenges to those constructing the cairns, whose stones were sourced from the immediate landscape.
Round cairns served as communal or individual burial monuments, often surrounded by a defined perimeter and sometimes associated with ritual activity. At Pen-Rhiw-Angharad, the clustering of multiple cairns suggests a substantial Bronze Age funerary focus on this upland location. The visibility of such monuments across the Welsh landscape reflects the social importance and territorial assertion of Bronze Age communities. The ferricrete-rich soils would have supported moorland vegetation during prehistory, making this an environment suited to pastoral exploitation and burial monument construction.
Pen-Rhiw-Angharad Round Cairns is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference GM276. View the official record →
Pen-Rhiw-Angharad Round Cairns is a prehistoric cairnfield located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference GM276.
Pen-Rhiw-Angharad Round Cairns dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a cairnfield. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Pen-Rhiw-Angharad Round Cairns 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 GM276.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Nant Herbert Camp (5.5 km), Foel Fynyddau Round Cairn (5.8 km), Mynydd y Gaer (Lower) Camp (6 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Pen-Rhiw-Angharad Round Cairns'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.
Pen-Rhiw-Angharad Round Cairns 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.