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The Beacons Round Barrows is a prehistoric round barrow located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference GM280. Round barrows are earthen mounds raised over burial deposits, typically dating to the Bronze Age, and represent some of Britain's most enduring prehistoric monuments. This example stands upon bedrock of the South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, a geological sequence of Westphalian age comprising mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete. The underlying geology would have shaped both the available building materials and the local landscape visible from the barrow.
The construction of round barrows reflects sophisticated burial practices and communal effort in prehistoric societies. The barrow's position within the Coal Measures geology places it in a region rich in mineral resources that would later become central to industrial Wales, though the monument itself belongs to a far earlier era of human activity. The survival of this earthwork to the present day, despite millennia of exposure to the Welsh climate and the geological processes of its coal-bearing substrate, testifies to the substantial nature of its original construction.
As a scheduled monument under Cadw's protection, the Beacons Round Barrows remains an important record of prehistoric burial custom and social organisation in the region. Such barrows often contained cremated or inhumed remains, sometimes accompanied by grave goods, providing archaeologists with insights into Bronze Age communities and their beliefs concerning death and commemoration.
The Beacons Round Barrows is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference GM280. View the official record →
The Beacons Round Barrows is a prehistoric round barrow located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference GM280.
The Beacons Round Barrows dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a round barrow. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
The Beacons Round Barrows 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 GM280.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Castell Tal-y-Fan (6.8 km), Stalling Down Round Barrow (9.1 km), Maes-y-Hwyaid Round Barrow (9.1 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of The Beacons Round Barrows'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.
The Beacons Round Barrows 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.