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Pengawse Ring Cairn is a prehistoric ring barrow located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference PE390. The monument consists of a circular cairn surrounded by a ditch, a distinctive form of burial monument characteristic of the Bronze Age. Ring barrows of this type functioned as communal or high-status burial places, their circular earthworks creating a defined ritual space within the landscape. The monument sits on bedrock composed of Ashgill Rocks, undifferentiated mudstone, siltstone and sandstone formed during the Ashgill period of the Ordovician, reflecting the ancient geology of the Welsh uplands.
The construction of such monuments required considerable labour investment, suggesting the community that built Pengawse Ring Cairn possessed both social organisation and settled occupation. The surrounding terrain would have provided local stone for the cairn's construction, worked from or exposed in the immediate vicinity. Like other ring barrows across Britain and Wales, Pengawse Ring Cairn represents a significant investment in commemorating the dead within a formally demarcated ceremonial zone, reflecting the values and capabilities of prehistoric communities in this region.
Pengawse Ring Cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference PE390. View the official record →
Pengawse Ring Cairn is a prehistoric ring barrow located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference PE390.
Pengawse Ring Cairn dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a ring barrow. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Pengawse Ring 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 PE390.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including New House Round Barrows (6 km), Castle Heli Mound (7 km), Longstone Camp (7.5 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Pengawse Ring 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.
Pengawse Ring Cairn stands on Ashgill Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Ashgill. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.