GM078

Carn Llechart Stone Circle  

03/05/1935  

Designated  

Neath Port Talbot  

Pontardawe  

269734  

206268  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

Round Cairn  

Prehistoric  

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument. The monument comprises the remains a burial cairn probably dating to the Bronze Age (c. 2300 - 800 BC). It is located on moorland at 290m above OD. The round cairn is circular on plan and consists of a ring of twenty-five stone slabs probably all originally upright but now mostly leaning outwards slightly. It measures 13.1m in internal diameter. The slabs vary in length from 0.6m to 2.5m, none stands more than 0.9m high. The level stony interior is very slightly above the surrounding ground level. At the centre is a robbed-out rectangular cist measuring 2.1m long by 1.2m wide. The eastern slab of the cist is missing but the remaining side stones are in position through the southern slab leans inwards. To the west of the cist is a mound of upcast from its excavation. The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric burial and ritual practices. The monument is an important relic of a prehistoric funerary and ritual landscape and retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of both intact burial or ritual deposits, together with environmental and structural evidence. Cairns may be part of a larger cluster of monuments and their importance can further enhanced by their group value. The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.