This is a very fine example of a platform cairn, which lies on the flat top of a ridge dividing the Aber Llech Daniel from the Afon Fechan at 450m above sea level.
The monument was fully excavated during 1973-75 following which it was reconstructed. Excavation revealed that the cairn was built in two stages, shortly after 2000 BC. Originally it comprised a wide ring of stones, with an open centre, some 22-23m in diameter and 0.5m high, made up essentially of two layers of stone. The inner edge of the ring was carefully finished with a perfect circle of 26 small upright stones. The wide ring covered the burial of an adult and child; their cremated bones, together with the bone handle of a dagger, were placed in a pot beneath the southern part of the ring. The open centre was used for another cremation burial and in the middle stood a large wooden post.
Later on, the centre of the monument was filled with stone to produce a complete circular platform. This covered a small pit covering an urn full of charcoal. Abutting the cairn on the north-east a small semi-circular cairn neatly edged with a single line of boulders and filled with smaller stones was also added. The cairn is 3.5m long by 1.6m wide and 0.3m high, and contained a small Collared Urn that contained charcoal and one piece of heavily burnt flint.
RCAHMW, 20th July 2009.
Souces
Lynch, F 1993 Excavations in the Brenig Valley: A Mesolithic and Bronze Age Landscape in North Wales. Cambrian Archaeological Monograph No. 5
Resources
DownloadTypeSourceDescription
application/pdfRCAHMW ExhibitionsBilingual exhibition panel entitled Mynydd Hiraethog. The Denbigh Moors. produced by RCAHMW, 2011.