Images

Image of Cefn Gwrhyd (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

Plenty of stone scatter in the location of the eastern cairn. Looking north towards the mountains of Y Mynydd Ddu.

Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Image of Cefn Gwrhyd (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

A couple of large stones in the grass where the western cairns are.

Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Image of Cefn Gwrhyd (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

Looking south to Cefn Gwryhd itself from the western cairns.

Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Image of Cefn Gwrhyd (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

Other than a greener grassy patch, there’s little to see of the western cairns on the ground. Looking west. The hill on the left is Mynydd Uchaf, the highest point on these two ridges either side of Afon Egel.

Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)
Image of Cefn Gwrhyd (Cairn(s)) by thesweetcheat

The location of the cairns indicated, from Cefn Gwrhyd itself to the south.

Image credit: A. Brookes (7.10.2023)

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Miscellaneous

Cefn Gwrhyd
Cairn(s)

Coflein descriptions of the three denuded cairns:

Western cairns

Two probable cairns: I – at SN73150878, GGAT Prn00490W, a slightly raised, 7m diameter, stony patch; II – at SN77130877, GGAT Prn02667W, thought to be the robbed and elongated remains of a cairn, 10m by 6m. Both these monuments and Nprn304570 [the eastern cairn] are thought to have been robbed to construct field walls.

Eastern cairn (SN7331008920)

A circular stony patch, 10.7m in diameter, believed to be the base of a robbed cairn.

The GGAT records also indicated a nearby fallen standing stone, just to the SE of the cairns in a field wall at SN7325708775.

It now lies on one long face, with what would have been the base still embedded in the bank which has been built up over it after the stone fell. It consists of a large block of sandstone of rectangular section; the long faces are shouldered, with the width at the top diminishing from 1.35m at what would have been the bottom to 0.6m at what would have been the top. The bedding planes of the sandstone can be seen in the short faces. What is now the lower side of the monument and would have been its NE face is embedded in the ground towards the bank, but the other (previously upper) end is propped clear, since the outer bedding planes on this side have come away, making the monument thinner at this point. A large triangular slab of sandstone also protrudes from the same side of the bank adjacent to the standing stone, but is probably not connected with it. Section 1.35x>0.6m; orig height c3.85m GGAT 72 Prehistoric Funerary and Ritual Sites survey 2001.

(1964/1976) On Cefn Gwrydd, a ridge N of Pontardawe, at about 295m above OD. A rectangular monolith, now on the NE side of a field bank , leaning so heavily to the E as to be almost recumbent. It is 1.4m wide by 0.5m thick, and when upright must have been at least 4m high. The stone must have been in its present position for a considerable time, as the field bank has been built over its base.

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