Carn Menyn chambered cairn
DatedEst. 4000–2500 BCE
Photo Andrew Sprott · CC BY-SA 2.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Carn Menyn chambered cairn (Carn Menyn Round Cairn) is an unexcavated megalithic monument of uncertain type, probably a chambered tomb, at Mynachlog-Ddu near Newport in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is a scheduled monument, and is dated by typological estimate to between 4000 and 2500 BCE.
The cairn is egg-shaped and measures about 13.0 m × 12.0 m. A capstone about 2.7 m × 2.3 m rests on its central chamber.
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Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Carn Menyn chambered cairn
Two splayed arms of facing masonry form a possible forecourt on the south-west side, filled with rubble.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Carn Menyn Round CairnCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Carn Menyn Round CairnCC BY-SA 4.0
The cairn stands up to 1.5 m high and is flattened at its north-eastern end. On the south-west side it is a field of rubble that has slipped into a water channel. The north-west side of the central chamber, on which a capstone about 2.7 m × 2.3 m and up to 0.6 m thick rests, has collapsed.
Two splayed arms of facing masonry form a possible forecourt on the south-west side, filled with rubble.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Carn Menyn Round CairnCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Carn Menyn Round CairnCC BY-SA 4.0
The Carn Meini Tomb and the standing stones known as Carn Breseb Pointer, Stone River Stone and Carn Menyn Marker lie nearby.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Orkney, Caithness and Scottish chambered cairns
Scotland, and above all Orkney and Caithness, has many Neolithic tombs. A chambered cairn is a stone mound over one or more burial chambers, entered by a passage. Maeshowe on Mainland Orkney was probably built around 2800 BCE, and gives its name to the Maeshowe type of cairn, which is limited to Orkney; its entrance passage is about 11 metres long, and sunlight enters it at the winter solstice and reaches the rear wall of the chamber. It is part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site. In the twelfth century Norse visitors broke in through the roof and left runic inscriptions inside.
Orkney also has the Quoyness cairn on Sanday, built about 3000 BCE and similar in design to Maeshowe, where the remains of several people were found in 1867. Unstan, on a promontory into the Loch of Stenness, is an atypical hybrid of the two main types of Orkney cairn and gave its name to Unstan ware, a type of pottery. The Tomb of the Eagles at Isbister on South Ronaldsay stands on a cliff edge.
On the mainland, the Grey Cairns of Camster in Caithness are two large chambered cairns dating to around 3000 BCE, among the oldest structures in Scotland, with central chambers reached by narrow passages. They were excavated and restored by Historic Environment Scotland and are open to the public.
Dating rests on radiocarbon dates from bone and on pottery, but many cairns were opened by antiquarians in the nineteenth century before records were kept. The Atlas gives a typological range of the fourth to third millennium BCE for most.
When visiting, check access in advance, since some cairns have narrow passages and others are open only at set times.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Chambered cairn, Wikipedia: Maes Howe, Wikipedia: Quoyness chambered cairn, Wikipedia: Unstan chambered cairn, Wikipedia: Isbister Chambered Cairn, Wikipedia: Midhowe Chambered Cairn, Wikipedia: Grey Cairns of Camster · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photographs
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4000–2500 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for chambered cairns in United Kingdom; this site has not been dated itself. Stone-chambered cairns appear in the early Neolithic (4000-3300 BC) and in the later Neolithic (3300-2500 BC) massive circular enclosures emerge.Source for this date
Where it stands
United Kingdom
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 51°57′39″ N, 4°42′29″ WFor a GPS or map app: 51.96086, -4.70805
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Carn Gwr, Southern Cairn4000–800 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Carn Gwr, Northern Cairn4000–800 BCE
Bedd Arthur4000–2400 BCE
Carn Bica, SW of Penygroes4000–800 BCE
Carn Ferched4000–800 BCE
Foel Trigarn, West Cairn4000–800 BCE
Foel Trigarn, Central Cairn4000–800 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Moel Trigarn4000–800 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q60846270wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Carn Menyn Round Cairn" (German), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (German): Carn Menyn Round CairnCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q60846270CC0