Landscape context from Carn-yr-Hyrddod to the south. The cairn is on the top of the hill, centre, to the right of the forestry. Corn Du and Pen y Fan are the unmistakable mountains on the skyline over to the right.
Please keep the ‘trail-biker’ morons that do things such as this the hell away from me. It is a South Walian disease.
Clear section of surviving ditch.
Remains of cist#3?
Remains of cist#2?
Remains of cist#1?
Substantial cairn, this – or perhaps that should be double cairn?
Mynydd Llangeinwyr (bearing Carn-yr-Hyrddod) can be seen approx centre skyline, the Glamorgan coastline far distance.
The antennae of The Werfa can be seen beyond.
The cairn’s a beauty.... the environs are a shambles, particularly during winter.
Crug yr Afan seen prominently on its hilltop from the slopes of Werfa, to the SW.
Despite some poor treatment, this remains an excellent monument. The “upper” and “lower” cairns can be easily distinguished from the south.
Possible kerbing on the south side of the cairn.
Looking due south across the shattered “upper” cairn. The hill directly ahead is home to Carn yr Hyrddod, while the Ogmore Valley falls away to the left of centre.
Looking SSE. The hill on the far left is Mynydd Ton, boasting yet more Bronze Age cairns.
Small upright at the base of the “upper” cairn, possibly part of a kerb.
Looking over the wrecked top of the cairn, showing the concrete block reported by Carl, which I think might be the remains of a trig pillar, fallen into the central scoop. The big hill on the far skyline is the near-2,000ft Craig y Llyn, topped with several of its own cairns.
Arriving at the cairn from the north, thankful that the mud surrounding the monument has been baked hard.
you can just make out the shallow ditch on the right.
Visited 29.6.10.
Despite the weather being in the mid 70’s with plenty of sunshine on the coast (I was heading for the beach via a small ‘detour’) it was misty with drizzle up in the mountains!!
Travelling west along the A4107 from the A4061 you come to a road sign which states ‘Welcome to Bridgend District’. Park near the sign on the grass verge and walk up the tractor tyre tracks heading up the hill parallel to the trees. After about 5 minutes the cair comes into view. Luckily I had my wellies in the car otherwise I would have got soaked. The cairn was a lot bigger than I expected and had been dug into. An old car tyre and concrete lump had been dumped in the cairn’s hollow. Despite this, it was very atmospheric – probably due to the weather?
The cairn is NOT visible from the road.
It was more or less on our route from Neath to Merthyr Tydfil and only a five to ten minute walk from the road, plus the coflein description was very interesting....
A complex monument consisting of a central clayey mound, 20.5m in diameter and 0.9m with, having a level summit, 13.5m in diameter, upon which rests a cairn, c.10m in diameter and 0.9m high, said to have been enclosed by upright stones, this is centrally disturbed with a small recent cairn set upon it. The whole is encircled by a ditch, c.28.4m in diameter.
Excavation, in 1902, revealed a cist cut into the subsoil, containing, burnt bone, a bronze model dagger and possible curated bone.....
There are no stones encircling the upper cairn but the two cairns, upper and lower, are easy to distinguish, and the ditch is only evident on the western side as the track and farming have destroyed or filled in the rest of it.
An untidy place, right next to a plantation, with untidy sheep willing us to leave, despite the long views to the south and east I didnt stay very long.
