Images

Image of Carn Saith-Wraig (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

Classic site, this. A very substantial monument set in a wondrous location overlooking what is – for me – one of Wales’ finest cwms: Cwm Doethie. Cefn Cnwch Eithinog stretches away, centre left. It was good to return here.... and linger.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Saith-Wraig (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

Carn Saith-wraig’s neighbouring monument to approx southeast... in most other locations this would surely be a primary site?

Image of Carn Saith-Wraig (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

This is a substantial, impressive monument.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Saith-Wraig (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

The magnificent ‘composite ring cairn/round barrow’, looking across to Bryn y Gorlan..

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Saith-Wraig (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

Approaching from Pen-y-Gurnos to the south........

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Saith-Wraig (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

The smaller companion cairn to approx southeast... the rain splodge is also authentic.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Saith-Wraig (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

Incidentally – unless I’m very much mistaken – looking towards Bryn y Gorlan.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Carn Saith-Wraig (Cairn(s)) by GLADMAN

The deep defile of Cwm Doethie lies beyond this beauty...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

Articles

The location, overlooking the great, sinuous defile of Cwm Doethie, is superb, with surviving archaeology to match. Yeah, not only is the massive ‘composite ring cairn/round platform cairn’ some 70ft in diameter, it also has a pretty large neighbour to the southeast… all accessible from a stony track.

Carn Saith-Wraig

These two cairns lie high in the Cambrian Mountains to the South east of Tregaron. They can be reached by walking up an old drove road from a remote chapel at Soar y Myndd on the mountain rd heading towards Builth Wells. As you reach the summit of the track there are several finger like mounds on the left hand side. The cairns lie at the far end of these alongside a sheep fold. Soon after the hillside drops away into a steep sided valley.

My Welsh speaking friend tells me Saith Wraig translates to Seven Women.

Miscellaneous

Carn Saith-Wraig
Cairn(s)

The word ‘wraig’ is mutated from ‘gwraig’, which means woman or wife.

The cairn to the north is a ring cairn, and it’s labelled Carn Saith-Wraig on the old Ordnance Survey maps. The cairn to the south is a badly damaged round cairn, and it is unlabelled on the maps. On the National Monument Record it carries name Saith-Wraig, Round Cairn but I suspect this is by association with its neighbour.

The reason I mention all this is that you can’t have the name ‘Carn Saith-Wraig’ for more than one cairn. The word ‘carn’ means cairn, not cairns. The plural is ‘Carneddau’, so if both sites shared the name they would collectively be called ‘Carneddau Saith-Wraig’... I think.

Sites within 20km of Carn Saith-Wraig