Parc Le Breos

Also known as:
Giant's Grave (Gower), Parc Cwm and Parc Le Bruce Burial Chamber
Nearest town:
Llanelli (12km NNW)
OS reference:
SS537898
OS sheet:
159
Latitude:
51° 35' 15.03 N
Longitude:
4° 6' 43.35 W

Images

Image of Parc Le Breos (Long Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Looking from the west chamber to the east. Unfortunately some of the restored stonework has tumbled into the chamber, probably from people climbing onto the cairn.

Image credit: A. Brookes (30.3.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 31, 2013
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Image of Parc Le Breos (Long Cairn) by Kammer

Taken 26th November 2003: The only photo that I managed to take without camera shake, before the camera stopped working.

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Kammer
Kammer May 26, 2004
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Articles

Parc Le Breos

postman
postman Sep 11, 2016
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It's been a decade since my first and only time here, and only the fact that the Swaynes howe chambers on Rossilli down were lost in drizzle and low cloud brings me back now. But that's not to say that the place isn't worthy of a second visit, it very much is, just that I was on the Gower trying to get to places I'd neglected on my other trip here.

So with a spare half hour the road sign of Park Le Breos couldn't be ignored.

It was a beautiful day yesterday but today it just rained all the time, which is weird because that was the weather I got ten years ago too, some things never change. The chambered cairn hasn't changed either, it's still crumpled at one corner, still full of water and still it's all to myself. I wondered whether my waiting daughter would mind if I went off looking for the cave, I decided she would mind so I made do with a short walk round it in the woods, peeking through the trees making my own silly Silbury game, coooeee.

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Parc Le Breos

C
CARL Oct 16, 2013
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Visited 11.10.13

On a beautiful day it was a pleasure to visit this secluded wooded valley. There were few people about and it was nice to re-visit this easy to access CADW site.

The grass was wet but the sun was warm. A mother and young child were also paying a visit. The little boy eagerly explored the passageway and side chambers of the tomb.

A future TMAer perhaps?

The site was how I remember it from my previous visit although a new Forestry Commission Wales information board had been erected. This gives a brief explanation of the site along with an artist’s impression of how the tomb had been constructed.

I noticed that the old metal info board calls the site Park-Le-Bruce.

No doubt an anglicised spelling?

This is an easy site to access and well worth a visit when on the Gower.

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Parc Le Breos

tjj
tjj Oct 22, 2012
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Visited Friday 19th October 2012 – first port of call of weekend on the lovely Gower Peninsular. About half a mile up the hill from the Park Mill Heritage Centre, this chambered stone long barrow is hard to miss. This was my first encounter with a 'cairn' type long barrow. Now open to the elements in the same way that Nympsfield in the Cotswolds is – the chambers are impressive.

The Cat Hole cave is a short walk away up into a wooded area.

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Parc Le Breos

C
CARL May 10, 2010
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I visited this site last summer when spending a day 'old stoning' on the Gower. Signposted off the surrounding main roads with a large free parking area in the parkland. The site is visible from the carpark and only requires an easy, flat walk along a path down the valley. This is a lovely place to visit, amongst the trees, particularly on a warm, sunny day. Well worth it.

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Parc Le Breos

Jane
Jane Dec 29, 2005
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This is a well tended and large restored Severn-Cotswold type cairn. We got there early and the light was streaming through the frosty trees. The cairn has a central passage with two pairs of transepted chambers. The cairn is now roofless so the internal structures are all exposed. It was fabulous just lying there surrounded by woodland in a bright yellow crisp winter valley. We loved it.

You can park very close by and the approach to it is flat so it'd be great for those using wheelchairs or buggies to visit.

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Parc Le Breos

Kammer
Kammer Jun 3, 2004
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Visited 26th November 2003: This was a fleeting visit, having persuaded a colleague to tag along after a work visit to Swansea. We drove right up the drive and parked in a little car park near the cairn. It was overcast, the light was fading and it soon began spitting with rain. Having only seen photos of the site I was surprised how small it was, not so much in length but in the height of masonry.

Almost as soon as we got to the cairn my camera stopped working. From the few shots I got, only one came out without camera shake. Must go back again under better circumstances.

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Parc Le Breos

dickie
dickie Aug 29, 2001
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The path/road leads away from the Watermill/Heritage Centre car park and ford. It says it's Private for access to B&B but some locals said just to say you're going to the camp site at the end which is a Forestry Commission/Scout site. The cairn is in a field to the right of the top car park surrounded by trees. It's kind of a naked Belas Knapp. Took some low level photos but thought better of emulating Julians aerial shot from the tree. Reasonable food and ale from the Gower Inn just up the road on the way back to Swansea

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Miscellaneous

Parc Le Breos
Long Cairn
fitzcoraldo
fitzcoraldo Feb 7, 2003
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Parc le Breos Cwm Transepted Long Cairn, Gower, West Glamorgan: Date, Contents, and Context

By Alasdair Whittle and Michael Wysocki

First investigated in 1869, the transepted long cairn of Parc le Breos Cwm was re-excavated in 1960–61 but without a report being published. This account presents a number of radiocarbon dates and a detailed re-examination of the human bone assemblages, and attempts to put the monument in local and regional context. Radiocarbon dates place the long cairn in the later part of the earlier Neolithic, and support a fairly long span of time over which its mortuary deposits were accumulated; they also show secondary re-use of the passage, and perhaps also the deliberate incorporation of very old animal bone from nearby caves. The analysis of the human bone assemblages indicates prior exposure of the remains found in the chambers, in contrast to those in the passage. Variation in musculoskeletal stress markers may indicate a mobile lifestyle for at least some of the male mortuary population. Other lifestyle indicators are noted, and isotopic evidence is presented for a terrestrial and mainly meat-oriented diet in the sampled group. The isolated context and hidden setting of the Parc le Breos Cwm long cairn and the apparently low density of south Welsh monuments are stressed.

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Topics

Parc Le Breos Spring Equinox event 6
C
CARL
Jan 2016

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