A tumulus or round barrow at Bryn yr Ellyllon, Pentre, Mold, is the findspot of the Mold Cape, one of Britain's most famous prehistoric artefacts. Workmen from a local workhouse dug into the mound in 1833 whilst digging for stone. They uncovered a stone lined burial chamber, within which were fragments of the crushed gold cape. This was shared out between the finders. The vicar of Mold recorded the finds made in the cist which included a skeleton, amber beads and a pottery vessel containing cremated human bones. Most of these have long since disappeared including pieces of the cape.

Mr Langford, the tenant of the land containing the find, kept the largest part of the cape and sold this to the British Museum in 1836. Long considered to be a corselet, breastplate or even a decorative breast piece for a pony, it was Professor Terence Powell of the University of Liverpool who, in 1954, concluded that the item was infact a cape. The gold cape would always have been a flimsy item and may only have been worn for special ocassions.

The site of the barrow is presently occupied by a house in the eastern suburbs of Mold, but the find is commerated by a plaque set into the wall. The cape was exhibited at Wrexham in 2005, and has been the subject of a new study by Dr Stuart Needham (as of 2010).

Main reference: T G E Powell, 1953, The Gold Ornament from Mold, Flintshire, North Wales, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 161-179.

T. Driver, RCAHMW, 11th Feb 2010.