Morfa Bychan

Nearest town:
Tenby (11km SW)
OS reference:
SN221074
OS sheet:
158
Latitude:
51° 44' 11.47 N
Longitude:
4° 34' 36.26 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by GLADMAN

The very well preserved Chamber ‘A‘

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 9, 2025
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by GLADMAN

Chamber ‘B’. The capstone is immediately to the right of the orthostats.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 9, 2025
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by GLADMAN

The superb capstone of Chamber ‘A‘

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 9, 2025
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by GLADMAN

Chamber ‘A’ with Gilman Camp in profile beyond.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 9, 2025
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by GLADMAN

Chamber ‘B’. The dislodged capstone can be seen to the left.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 9, 2025
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by GLADMAN

Chanber ‘A’: more-or-less intact, with dislodged capstone

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 9, 2025
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by GLADMAN

Chamber ‘A’. Gilman Camp can be seen rising beyond...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 9, 2025
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Morfa Bychan A, showing the orthostats of the chamber, no longer supporting the slipped capstone. Pembrokeshire beckons in the background.

Image credit: A. Brookes (20.9.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Nov 29, 2013
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Morfa Bychan B, with A down the slope on the far left. The distant island on the horizon is Caldey, near Tenby off the Pembrokeshire coast.

Image credit: A. Brookes (20.9.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Nov 29, 2013
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Morfa Bychan B, looking SE towards a smudgy Gower and Worm’s Head.

Image credit: A. Brookes (20.9.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Nov 29, 2013
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Morfa Bychan B, looking north towards the rock stack (Morfa Bychan C is at the foot of the stack, but not visible in the bracken).

Image credit: A. Brookes (20.9.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Nov 29, 2013
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Morfa Bychan C, looking east towards Gilman Camp cliff fort.

Image credit: A. Brookes (20.9.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Nov 29, 2013
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The wrecked Morfa C lies forlorn and nearly buried in bracken below the cliff. The viewpoint is next to Postie’s rock stack.

Image credit: A. Brookes (20.9.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Nov 29, 2013
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by thesweetcheat

The interior of the Morfa Bychan D chamber. Including resident.

Image credit: A. Brookes (20.9.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Nov 29, 2013
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by thesweetcheat

Morfa Bychan D, after some bracken-trampling to reveal the entrance.

Image credit: A. Brookes (20.9.2013)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Nov 29, 2013
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by postman

Guide yourself by looking for the rock stack first

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Aug 19, 2009
Image of Morfa Bychan (Chambered Cairn) by postman

Inbetween the sea and this cahamber is a couple of rocks and then the best of the four chambers

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Aug 19, 2009

Articles

42 years after my last vist to Pendine... I’m back. And this time it’s, er, archaeological...

GLADMAN
GLADMAN Mar 8, 2025

Morfa Bychan

postman
postman Aug 19, 2009

Do not walk from Pendine with its fantastic beach unless your into the coast path going up and down, instead turn right to Marros before you get to Pentywyn then turn left by a campsite and drive through a long thin wood and you’ll get to a lovely little beach between Ragwen point and Gilman point. the burial chambers are on the cliffs to your right/west.
If we had started here, it still would have been an ordeal getting up to them and then finding them amongst the rocks and ferns, unfortunatly
we started in Pendine and my daughter only had on her imperfectly fitting wellies because her always tired dad forgot to find her boots. Boooo !

We headed for the rock stack as it looked like it was in the right place and was visible from quite a distance, I was uncharacteristically bang on the money as at its foot was what looked like a badly damaged chamber I had a quick look and followed the cliff top ( with only a ten foot drop I hesitate to call it a cliff) down towards the sea, untill we came upon the chamber featured by coflein.
The chamber orthostats were taller than I anticipated, the capstone was bigger too and the view more inspiring than I’d thought possible.
We cleared some of the ferns to get a better look at the place and we found it to be perfect in almost every way.
Going back up the hill to the rock stack we pass two big rocks and the next chamber arrives on the conveyer belt of antiquity. The upright stones of the chamber are more skewed and broken and the capstone lies broken but identifiable at their feet.
Then just ten feet from the rock stack is the most forlorn of the four chambers only three stones of the chamber survive all the others lie around broken indistinguishable from the light smattering of cairn material that is also here.
I was about to give up on the last chamber, we had ascended the cliff top and were walking along looking for anything likely, when I spotted a long flat stone and I went down to have a look and nearly fell in. I had stumbled upon what seemed to be the fourth and most intact of the chambers. The capstone was at floor level and at one corner was an opening going underneath the heavy looking capstone, after clearing the ferns we discovered a step going down which is what I nearly tumbled into. I peeked the camera through the opening and took a photo with the flash on, it revealed all the uprights in place and the cairn material peeped through the orthostatic windows, it was indeed the other chamber, or first one depending on which way you came ?

The walk back to the car was nice but the little one needed bags of encouragement and bribes

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