CN398

Carnedd y Ddelw Cairn  

17/08/2006  

Designated  

Gwynedd  

Aber  

270778  

370541  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

Round Cairn  

Prehistoric  

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument. The monument comprises the remains of an upland stone-built cairn, a burial monument that probably dates to the Bronze Age (c. 2300 - 800 BC). It is located slightly SW of a local summit on the N-facing slopes of Drum mountain, overlooking the head of the Anafon valley and Llyn Anafon to the W. The cairn is circular in shape on plan and measures approximately 15m in diameter. It has a low and rounded profile and measures up to 1.8m high. Although the upper part of the cairn has been modified by a walkers' shelter, the lower cairn material appears to be mostly undisturbed and structural and burial evidence can be expected to survive protected by the cairn material above. The RCAHM inventory records that the cairn was partially excavated during the eighteenth century. 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 structural evidence. The importance of the site is further enhanced by the cairn's association with other summit cairns in the vicinity. The scheduled area comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. It is circular and measures 20m in diameter.