CN358

Y Garn cairns  

30/06/2004  

Designated  

Gwynedd  

Betws Garmon  

255115  

352594  

Religious, Ritual and Funerary  

Round Cairn  

Prehistoric  

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument. The monument comprises two large burial cairns, probably dating to the Bronze Age (c.2300 BC - 800 BC) and situated within open moorland on the summit of Y Garn. The stone built cairns are circular on plan and measure about 10m in diameter and up to about 2m in height. The cairns have both been disturbed in the past, with the construction of drystone shelters around hollows dug into the centres. Both cairns command extensive views. The cairns have been inventoried as Y Garn cairn A (SH 551 526), the easternmost of the pair; and Y Garn cairn B (SH 550 525), the westernmost of the pair. 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 environmental and structural evidence, including buried prehistoric land surfaces. The area to be scheduled comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. It is rectangular and measures 75m from NE to SW by 35m transversely.