Ty Mawr Burial Chamber
Also known asBurial Chamber 180m NE of Pen-y-Berth
DatedEst. 4000–2500 BCE
Photo Dave.Dunford · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Pen-y-berth (beddrod siambr), catalogued as Ty Mawr Burial Chamber, is a chambered tomb at Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, Anglesey (Ynys Môn), Wales (grid reference SH538721). It belongs to the Neolithic or the Bronze Age or earlier, and is dated to between 3,000 and 2,400 BCE. It is a scheduled monument, recorded by Cadw as SAM AN037, and is also listed as a National Monument of Wales.
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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
Ty Mawr Burial Chamber
Related forms of burial chamber named for comparison are the long chamber tomb and the Severn-Cotswold tomb.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (cy): Pen-y-berth (beddrod siambr)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (cy): Pen-y-berth (beddrod siambr)CC BY-SA 4.0
The monument is a burial chamber of the type known in Welsh as beddrod siambr (chambered tomb). It is also catalogued as Burial Chamber 180m NE of Pen-y-Berth. Related forms of burial chamber named for comparison are the long chamber tomb and the Severn-Cotswold tomb.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (cy): Pen-y-berth (beddrod siambr)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (cy): Pen-y-berth (beddrod siambr)CC BY-SA 4.0
The catalogue gives a typological estimate of 4000 to 2500 BCE, that is, a date based on the form of the monument rather than on excavated evidence. The tomb was raised before the Celtic period.
InterpretationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (cy): Pen-y-berth (beddrod siambr)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (cy): Pen-y-berth (beddrod siambr)CC BY-SA 4.0
The tomb was built to bury the dead and was perhaps also a social focus for rituals connected with death.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (cy): Pen-y-berth (beddrod siambr)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (cy): Pen-y-berth (beddrod siambr)CC BY-SA 4.0
Chambered cairns are stone mounds raised over one or more burial chambers, entered by a passage. In Scotland, and above all in Orkney and Caithness, many such Neolithic tombs survive.
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
- 53°13′34″ N, 4°11′27″ WFor a GPS or map app: 53.22623, -4.19076
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.
Ty Mawr Burial Chamber4500–1800 BCE
Ty-Wyn Standing Stone2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Llandegfan Maen Hir2800–1800 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Goetre Uchaf barrow4000–800 BCE
Plas Newydd Burial Chambers4000–2500 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Pen-y-Maen Standing Stone2800–1800 BCE
برين كللي ددو1950–1850 BCE
Bryn Celli Ddu Cairn (Plough Levelled)4000–800 BCE
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q13130624wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Pen-y-berth.jpgDave.DunfordCC BY-SA 4.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Ty Mawr Burial Chamber<0.1 km E
- Ty-Wyn Standing Stone2.3 km NE
- Llandegfan Maen Hir2.4 km NE
- Goetre Uchaf barrow2.8 km SE
- Plas Newydd Burial Chambers3.0 km SW
- Pen-y-Maen Standing Stone3.1 km NE
- برين كللي ددو3.6 km SW
- Bryn Celli Ddu Cairn (Plough Levelled)3.7 km SW
- Bryn yr Hen Bobl3.7 km SW
- Site of Cairn South of Bryn Celli Ddu3.7 km SW
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Pen-y-berth (beddrod siambr)" (cy), 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