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Wern Frank Wood round cairn is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference BR319. Round cairns of this type were constructed during the Bronze Age as burial monuments, typically consisting of a mound of stones heaped over a central grave or cremation deposit. The cairn was deliberately sited on bedrock composed of Lower Devonian rocks—mudstone, siltstone and sandstone formed during the Early Devonian period, which provided a stable foundation and accessible stone for construction.
The monument sits within a landscape shaped by these underlying geological formations, which would have been familiar to Bronze Age communities exploiting the upland terrain. The specific stone composition of the local bedrock influenced both the appearance and durability of the cairn's construction, as builders selected suitable material from the immediate vicinity. Such monuments served as enduring territorial markers and focal points for burial ritual, anchoring communities to the landscape.
Today Wern Frank Wood round cairn remains a significant archaeological record of Bronze Age funerary practice in Wales. Its preservation as a scheduled monument recognises its value in understanding prehistoric settlement patterns, burial customs and the relationship between ancient communities and their distinctive upland environment.
Wern Frank Wood round cairn is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference BR319. View the official record →
Wern Frank Wood round cairn is a prehistoric round cairn located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference BR319.
Wern Frank Wood round cairn 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.
Wern Frank Wood round 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 BR319.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Pen Allt-mawr platform cairn (8.9 km), Pen Tir, cairn on S end of (9 km), Coed y Gaer (9.3 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Wern Frank Wood round 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.
Wern Frank Wood round cairn stands on Lower Devonian Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Early Devonian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.