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Tomen y Meirw is a prehistoric round barrow situated in Wales and protected as a scheduled ancient monument by Cadw under reference DE102. The monument sits upon bedrock formed from Ashgill rocks, an undifferentiated sequence of mudstone, siltstone and sandstone laid down during the Ashgill period. This geology would have offered the builders access to local stone suitable for constructing cairns and creating the mound itself, materials found naturally across the surrounding landscape.
Round barrows such as Tomen y Meirw served as burial monuments, typically constructed during the Bronze Age though some traditions extended earlier into the Neolithic period. The mounded earthwork represents an investment of considerable labour, marking a place of ancestral significance for prehistoric communities. The monument's survival to the present day, despite millennia of ploughing, weathering and land use change, testifies to both its solid construction and its continued recognition by successive generations of local people.
The name Tomen y Meirw carries associations with Welsh tradition and settlement history, though the precise original context remains obscured by time. Its protection under Cadw ensures that this physical record of prehistoric burial practice and prehistoric social structures remains preserved for archaeological study and public understanding of Wales's deep past.
Tomen y Meirw is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference DE102. View the official record →
Tomen y Meirw is a prehistoric round barrow situated in Wales and protected as a scheduled ancient monument by Cadw under reference DE102.
Tomen y Meirw 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.
Tomen y Meirw 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 DE102.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Wilderness Round Barrows (2 km), Bryn Du cairn (2 km), Tomen y Gwyddel Round Barrow (2.9 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Tomen y Meirw'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.
Tomen y Meirw stands on Ashgill Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Ashgill. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.