GM579

Llanmadoc Hill, cairn on E end of  

16/03/2004  

Designated  

Swansea  

Llangennith, Llanmadoc and Cheriton  

243998  

192703  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

Round Cairn  

Prehistoric  

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument. The monument comprises the remains of a large burial cairn, probably dating to the Bronze Age (c.2300 BC - 800 BC) and situated within open moorland on the summit of the ridge of Llanmadoc Hill. The stone built cairn is circular on plan and measures about 21m in diameter and up to 1.4m in height. The cairn has been disturbed in the past, with the addition of a walker's cairn, the excavation of several hollows by stone robbing and the construction of several large drystone sheep shelters. A further interesting feature of note is the remains of a large grass-covered stony ring bank. This probably represents the remains of an earlier ring cairn, circular on plan and measuring about 30m in diameter overall within a grass-covered stony bank spread to 1.5m in thickness and up to 0.3m in height. The later burial cairn is set slightly off centre within this ring bank, which is obscured by the cairn for much of its northern arc. The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric burial and ritual. The monument is an important relic of a prehistoric funerary and ritual landscape and retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability the presence of both intact burial or ritual deposits and environmental and structural evidence, including a buried prehistoric land surface. The interesting superimposition of the later burial cairn on top of the earlier ring cairn further enhances the importance of the monument. The area scheduled comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.