Moel yr Ogof

Nearest town:
Porthmadog (9km SSE)
OS reference:
SH5565647839
OS sheet:
115
Latitude:
53° 0' 28.76 N
Longitude:
4° 9' 5.72 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Moel yr Ogof (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Moel yr Ogof, centre, with Moel Hebog behind. Seen from the northwest on the slopes of Moel Lefn. The coastline of Bae Ceredigion stretches away on the right.

Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 12, 2026
Image of Moel yr Ogof (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The cairn in the foreground with extended walking pole laid across it to show how small it is. I couldn’t see anything that might be described as a ‘capstone’ as mentioned in the Coflein record, but a cairn of only 1.2m diameter isn’t really big enough for a cist, surely, unless the cist is somewhere nearby? Looking towards the steep slopes of Moel Hebog, with Cnicht and Y Moelwynion beyond to the left.

Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 12, 2026
Image of Moel yr Ogof (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The cairn might be tiny, but the views are epic. Towards Yr Wyddfa.

Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 12, 2026
Image of Moel yr Ogof (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The extremely diminutive cairn in the foreground, with a diameter of just over a metre. It took a bit of wandering about the flat area to the east of the summit (rising behind) to find it!

Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 12, 2026
Image of Moel yr Ogof (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Moel yr Ogof rising over Bwlch Mellionen, from the southeast.

Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 12, 2026
Image of Moel yr Ogof (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Zoom on Moel yr Ogof from the upper slopes of Moel Hebog. The path to the cairn and summit is through a dramatic gap in the sheer cliffs separating the southeastern slopes of the mountain from Bwlch Mellionen.

Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Aug 12, 2026
Image of Moel yr Ogof (Round Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Moel yr Ogof is the summit in the centre, with a forbidding facade of crags protecting its southeastern approaches. The cairn is just below the summit. The skyline boasts Yr Eifl (top left) and the Nantlle ridge, with various summit cairns.

Image credit: A. Brookes (17.9.2024)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 7, 2025
Image of Moel yr Ogof (Round Cairn) by postman

Moel Hebog on the left with its top in the cloud, but next on it’s right is Moel yr Ogof

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Sep 13, 2015
Image of Moel yr Ogof (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

The Bronze Age funerary cairn is upon the crag nearest camera, viewed from Moel Hebog. Craig Cwm-Silyn’s monument is top left. The prominent cairn upon Mynydd Tal-y-Mignedd (top centre right) was erected in honour of Queen Victoria by a ‘grateful nation’. Suckers.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Nov 6, 2010
Image of Moel yr Ogof (Round Cairn) by GLADMAN

Approaching from Moel Hebog. Oh, there are quite a few other Bronze Age cairns around and about, by the way........

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 16, 2010

Articles

Miscellaneous

Moel yr Ogof
Round Cairn
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Oct 16, 2010

Moel yr Ogof...the ‘Hill of the Cave’.... is a 2,149ft mountain rising to the north west of Moel Hebog, separating Cwm Meillionen from Cwm Llefrith. Its claim to fame – and, indeed, reason for its name – is a cave high up on its eastern face where Owain Glyndwyr is said to sleep until called upon to do whatever slumbering heroes do when rudely awakened. I tend to rush off to work, it has to be said, cursing all and sundry...

Moel yr Ogof possesses another, much more tangible treasure upon its brutally exposed summit, however... a Bronze Age funerary cairn. Ha! According to Coflein it is:

‘A roughly circular cairn of approx. 1.2m in diameter which is situated on level ground adjacent to a summit. Comprised of stones varying in size between 0.2m – 0.3m, there are two possible capstones over a hole in the ground that could be a cist. Noted during an upland survey conducted by Archaeophysica during 2005-6‘

Sites within 20km of Moel yr Ogof