Cairn with kerb

Also known as:
Tal-y-Waen kerbed cairn
Nearest town:
Dolgellau (4km ENE)
OS reference:
SH69621666
OS sheet:
124
Latitude:
52° 43' 53.13 N
Longitude:
3° 55' 51.94 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Cairn with kerb (Kerbed Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Looking towards Pared y Cefn hir. The cairn is looking a bit more overrun with bracken than in previous photos.

Image credit: A. Brookes (9.11.2022)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Oct 31, 2023
Image of Cairn with kerb (Kerbed Cairn) by GLADMAN

Even pushing the ISO up to 800 didn’t help the photography much in these conditions. Marvellous.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 4, 2017
Image of Cairn with kerb (Kerbed Cairn) by GLADMAN

I also took this to be a portal stone. But surely not?

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 4, 2017
Image of Cairn with kerb (Kerbed Cairn) by GLADMAN

Substantial kerb stones demarcate this cairn. Excellent find by the preceding members...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 4, 2017
Image of Cairn with kerb (Kerbed Cairn) by GLADMAN

In my opinion this is a very impressive monument indeed. Anywhere else and it’d have railings and a signpost. I’m glad it hasn’t.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 4, 2017
Image of Cairn with kerb (Kerbed Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Looking from the “woodland saddle”. The hill behind the cairn hides the hillfort of Craig-y-Waun.

Image credit: A. Brookes (3.3.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 6, 2012
Image of Cairn with kerb (Kerbed Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The cairn is embedded in the surrounding vegetation, but remains an impressive monument.

Image credit: A. Brookes (3.3.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 6, 2012
Image of Cairn with kerb (Kerbed Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Looking down on the cairn. The stupendous backdrop is the Cadair Idris massif, but the intervening ridge blocks the view of it from the cairn itself.

Image credit: A. Brookes (3.3.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 6, 2012
Image of Cairn with kerb (Kerbed Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The kerb stones in the northern arc are buried in moss and grass.

Image credit: A. Brookes (3.3.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 6, 2012
Image of Cairn with kerb (Kerbed Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Kerb on the south of the cairn after a big of a tidy up.

Image credit: A. Brookes (3.3.2012)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 6, 2012
Image of Cairn with kerb (Kerbed Cairn) by postman

Looking over the cairn and across the sea of grass to Pared y Cefn Hir

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Mar 4, 2012
Image of Cairn with kerb (Kerbed Cairn) by postman

Kerb cairns dont have entrances do they ?, these kerb stones are on the western arc.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Apr 25, 2010
Image of Cairn with kerb (Kerbed Cairn) by postman

Pared y cefn hir in the background. (there is a fort on the left most peak)

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Apr 25, 2010
Image of Cairn with kerb (Kerbed Cairn) by postman

Not the kerb cairn but a small unrecorded cairn just twenty metres away.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Apr 25, 2010

Articles

Cairn with kerb

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Mar 4, 2012

At length, having crossed the worst of the wetness we head for the first of the group, the cairn with kerb. This turns out to be a real beauty. The top has been scooped out, inevitably. But around its base, to my surprise and elation, is a wonderfully intact kerb of stones. Some are practically hidden by gorse, but can be seen after pushing the spiky shoots aside. The stones appear to be graded, with the larger blocks (and they are large) on the southwestern side, the smallest on the northeast. Postie comments that you don’t expect to find Clava cairns in North Wales, and indeed it is very reminiscent of such structures. Alternatively, with internal mound removed the stones would be sufficiently large and widely spaced to make for a very convincing freestanding stone circle.

The OS map shows another cairn in the group lying “in” the wall to the north of the kerbed effort, so we head off in search. But after a bit of walking up and down, along the wall, we have to admit defeat. There is however a lovely view northeast across the Afon Mawddach valley to the conical Rhobell Fawr and even further to the distant Arenigs. [A post-visit check of Coflein offers no additional help, the sum total of description is “round cairn”.]

Cairn with kerb

postman
postman Apr 25, 2010

Another unimaginatively named cairn by Coflein.
As this cairn is furthest from the car it seems they were saving the best till last, though why a kerb cairn is better than a round cairn I couldnt possibly say, yes I can its because it’s got a kerb, they’re a little bit more interesting.
The Welsh government should make a council of tidy monuments, headed by myself we would visit ancient monuments great and small and if it is deemed that a tidy up operation is necessary then my team and me would come in and spend all day weeding and tidying, when weve finished a sign post would be fixed up by the road attracting visitors to these newly revealed ancient monuments, and people would say “wow I didnt know these were here” and they would wonder, sometimes aloud, why they built them here and who and for what reason, then I could smile and know that my job here is done.
Untill then we’ll carry on regardless.
The kerbing is most easily seen at the west through to the northern edges of thercairn,gorse clings to the edges of the cairn without mercy hiding most of the intersting kerb stones, the interior has been badly robbed for the walls nearby no doubt. Right next to the kerb and round cairn is a hill with a terrific view, down to all the cairns big and small and over to the mountain Cadair Idris and in the opposite direction down into the Mawddach valley and of into Snowdonia.
Whilst walking we saw a tiny brown lizard probably of the smooth variety, sun bathing it was till it saw Maggie then it wriggled into invisibility.

Sites within 20km of Cairn with kerb

Like all websites everywhere, we use cookies.