Gwernvale Chambered Tomb View all content for Gwernvale

OS 161 SO 211192 From Crickhowell, take A40 towards Brecon, take the right for the Manor Hotel (large white building up on the hill). There is a single parking space, site is practically on the road. 'The Illustrated History and Biography of Brecknockshire' Poole, E, 1886, mentions the destruction of the 'finest cromlech in Breckonshire' by Sir Richard Hoare and others in 1804. Dr Nicholas said of the capstone which was removed '...magnificent..., fourteen feet long and eighteen inches thick, with an average breadth of nearly seven feet, standing on four supporters'. All that remains is a single chamber (minus the capstone mentioned above) and parts of its entrance chamber. The extent of the site is marked out with miserable concrete markers, which reveal it as a chambered long cairn of the Severn-Cotswald type, with a horned fore-court (imagine Belas Knap). One of the horns is now under the A40. What remains reveals a polygonal chamber and that the entrance passage to it has a bend, another two chambers discovered in the 1978 excavation (because of road widening) are also indicated by markers. An unfortunate site, the proximity of the main road sealed its fate, although now fully excavated and in the care of Cadw, the busy road makes it rather forlorn, but easily accessible. The 1804 destruction of the capstone resulted in neglible finds: 'charcoal and a few bones' (Cadw guide).

Posted by elderford 22nd December 2002ce

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