This is a fine, upstanding round barrow indeed.
To tell you the truth, I was taken aback by the great state of preservation. This is Essex, after all......
Pastscape mentions an infilled surrounding ditch...
An out of season visit is recommended since the monument lies within an arable field...
The great round barrow viewed from the public footpath heading west from Church Road
A nice arc of footprint. The Black Mountains crown the distant skyline.
Two dodgy ‘marker cairns’ have been erected from the cairn material – plus a rather odd shelter – but, hey, there you are. Vandals.
This is a substantial cairn in terms of footprint
Looking approx east across the massive cairn towards Garth...
This is the main cairn... and deceptively substantial it is, too
There is – according to the map – a ‘burnt mound’ here, too... the Garth cairns are at the end of the ridge, straight ahead.
The quartet of cairns said to feature here are not particularly upstanding – compared with the monsters upon the plateau beyond – but nonetheless worth noting as an hors d’oeuvres.
Although robbed – as you would expect lying here for millennia – this remains a substantial monument.
The Black Mountains crown the horizon...
Wandering up to take a look at the cairns in the ‘vicinity of Garth’... as you do... one isn’t quite prepared for the substantial nature of some of the supporting cast to Carn Wen..
Although not featured upon OS mapping, the standing stone is obvious when you know where it is... aren’t they all? Looking from the car, the monolith is far centre-right of image. Following the bridleway a little to the left (SN93256957) one will pass a possible ‘chambered tomb’... although CPAT is adamant it is an ‘animal shelter’. The track ascends Banc Trehesglog to a stone row and cist below Crugyn Ci. So much going on here...
Great place to end the day.... a little over a mile south(ish) of Llanwrthwl, for me, this is one of the locale’s lowland gems.
If Nature is to reclaim its own, what an exquisite way to do it.
The cairn features a well-preserved cist, the capstone lying beside...
The north-eastern ridge of Y Gamriw (bearing substantial cairns) can be seen rising beyond.
There were apparently two cairns here; the other (at SN97646226) was destroyed during the 70’s...