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Three Round Barrows in Lower Hale Wood is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference MM191. The monument comprises three distinct burial mounds characteristic of Bronze Age funerary practice, when communities across Britain and Ireland constructed earthen and stone-built cairns to inter their dead and commemorate important individuals or family groups.
The barrows stand on bedrock of Upper Devonian rocks, formed during the Late Devonian period approximately 360 million years ago. This sandstone and conglomerate base, interbedded with varying strata, would have presented a hard, stable foundation for Bronze Age monument construction. The local geology likely supplied suitable stone for cairn building, making this woodland location a practical choice for burial sites.
Lower Hale Wood's three mounds represent a clustered cemetery typical of prehistoric upland and marginal landscapes. Such groupings often developed across generations as communities returned to the same burial ground, reinforcing territorial identity and ancestral connection to the land. The woodland setting, now forested, contrasts with the likely more open Bronze Age landscape where these monuments would have been visually prominent markers within the local community's sacred geography.
Three Round Barrows in Lower Hale Wood is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference MM191. View the official record →
Three Round Barrows in Lower Hale Wood is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference MM191.
Three Round Barrows in Lower Hale Wood 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.
Three Round Barrows in Lower Hale Wood 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 MM191.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Offa's Dyke: section 130m north west of Pennsylvania Farm (8 km), Offa's Dyke: section known as Buttington Tump, 100m west of Buttington Lodge (8.2 km), Bulwarks Prehistoric Enclosure (8.4 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Three Round Barrows in Lower Hale Wood'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.
Three Round Barrows in Lower Hale Wood stands on Upper Devonian Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Late Devonian. The rock here is sandstone and conglomerate, interbedded.