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Penarth Burial Chamber is a prehistoric chambered tomb located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference CN078. The monument sits upon bedrock of Neoproterozoic felsic tuff, an extrusive volcanic rock formed during the Neoproterozoic era over 540 million years ago. This ancient geological foundation provided the underlying landscape when the chamber was constructed during the Neolithic or Bronze Age.
Chambered tombs of this type represent some of Britain's earliest monumental architecture, typically built to serve as communal burial places for successive generations of a prehistoric community. The chamber would have been constructed from stone blocks, with passages or antechambers arranged to allow repeated access for ritual and burial purposes. The specific construction methods and internal arrangements employed by the builders of Penarth reflect the architectural traditions of their period and region.
The monument's survival to the present day, despite millennia of weathering on its Neoproterozoic bedrock foundation, testifies to the durability of both the stone used in its construction and the careful building practices of its creators. Penarth Burial Chamber remains an important record of prehistoric burial practice and religious belief in Wales, preserved under Cadw's protection for future study and public understanding.
Penarth Burial Chamber is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference CN078. View the official record →
Penarth Burial Chamber is a prehistoric chambered tomb located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference CN078.
Penarth Burial Chamber dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a chambered tomb. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Penarth Burial Chamber 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 CN078.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Tyddyn Mawr, standing stone to SSW of (6.6 km), Early Christian Inscribed Stone in the Churchyard, Llanaelhaearn (7.6 km), Part of Inscribed Stone Built into Wall of Churchyard (7.6 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Penarth Burial Chamber'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.
Penarth Burial Chamber stands on Unnamed Extrusive Rocks, Neoproterozoic, bedrock that formed in the Neoproterozoic. The rock here is felsic tuff.