ME256

Cairn 200m SE of Foel Ystrodur Fawr  

16/08/2006  

Designated  

Gwynedd  

Llanuwchllyn  

281601  

333940  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

Round Cairn  

Prehistoric  

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument. The monument comprises the remains of a small burial cairn, probably dating to the Bronze Age (c. 2300 BC - 800 BC). It is located on a terrace towards the bottom of the SE facing flank of Foel Ystrodur Fawr in an enclosed field of unimproved upland grazing. The terrace overlooks a wet and boggy plateau of moorland. The cairn is circular in shape on plan and measures c. 5.5m in diameter. The cairn is shallow and rounded in profile, measuring c. 0.4m tall. 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 of the presence of both intact burial or ritual deposits and structural evidence. The cairn is c. 750m W of, and possibly associated with, Scheduled Monument No. ME199, a prehistoric hut circle settlement. The cairn is located in a wet and boggy position and may retain palaeo-environmental and dating evidence. The area scheduled comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. It is circular and measures 10m in diameter.