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Round Cairn on Bessie's Meadow is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference GM498. The monument sits upon bedrock of Upper Devonian age, specifically undifferentiated sandstone and conglomerate deposited during the Late Devonian period. This geological foundation of interbedded stone would have been familiar to the prehistoric communities who built the cairn, as it formed the natural landscape they inhabited.
Round cairns of this type were constructed across Wales during the Bronze Age, typically serving as burial monuments or territorial markers on high ground and open moorland. The elevated position on Bessie's Meadow would have made the cairn visible across the surrounding landscape. Such monuments often contain evidence of inhumation or cremation burials, though the specific contents and construction details of this particular cairn are not recorded.
The cairn remains a tangible record of Bronze Age settlement and funerary practice in Wales. Its survival to the present day, despite millennia of agricultural and pastoral use of the surrounding land, reflects both the robustness of stone construction and the enduring significance of such monuments in the Welsh landscape. The monument's protection under Cadw ensures its preservation for future study and public understanding of prehistoric Wales.
Round Cairn on Bessie's Meadow is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference GM498. View the official record →
Round Cairn on Bessie's Meadow is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference GM498.
Round Cairn on Bessie's Meadow dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a round cairn. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Round Cairn on Bessie's Meadow 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 GM498.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Old Castle Camp (2.2 km), Lewes Castle Promontory Fort (2.8 km), Thurba Camp (3 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Round Cairn on Bessie's Meadow'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.
Round Cairn on Bessie's Meadow stands on Upper Devonian Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Late Devonian. The rock here is sandstone and conglomerate, interbedded.