Ty Mawr Burial Chamber
DatedEst. 4500–1800 BCE
Photo Chris Andrews · CC BY-SA 2.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
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Overview
About this site
Overview
Ty Mawr Burial Chamber is a Neolithic dolmen northeast of the town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, on Anglesey, Wales. It is a collapsed megalithic chamber, and a sill stone suggests that it was built as a passage grave.
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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
The collapse may have resulted from the removal of a stone before 1873, the date of a drawing of the structure.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Ty Mawr Burial ChamberCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Ty Mawr Burial ChamberCC BY-SA 4.0
The burial chamber is a collapsed megalithic dolmen with a fallen capstone slab, roughly 3.6 metres by 2.6 metres, resting on two flattened stones, each 1.3 metres long. The collapse may have resulted from the removal of a stone before 1873, the date of a drawing of the structure.
A sill stone to the east suggests that Ty Mawr was built as a passage grave. The stone would have marked the entrance to the chamber at the end of a short passageway from the edge of a covering stone cairn. The cairn has since been removed, but it was marked on early maps and is thought to have measured about 15 metres by 10 metres.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Ty Mawr Burial ChamberCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (English): Ty Mawr Burial ChamberCC BY-SA 4.0
In Wales the dolmen is called a cromlech, a Welsh word borrowed into English. Dolmens of this kind were usually covered by a mound of earth or stones, which has often since gone.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Welsh cromlechs and Cornish quoits
In Wales the dolmen is called a cromlech, a Welsh word borrowed into English, and in Cornwall it is a quoit. The finest in Wales is Pentre Ifan in Pembrokeshire, the largest and best-preserved Neolithic dolmen in the country. It was one of three Welsh monuments to receive legal protection under the Ancient Monuments Protection Act of 1882 and is now cared for by Cadw. Nearby, Carreg Samson, about 5,000 years old, has a capstone 4.7 metres by 2.7 metres and a metre thick that rests on three of six stones from 1.1 to 2.2 metres high. The whole chamber was once covered by a mound of earth or stones, which has gone.
Folklore: Carreg Samson is named for a local legend that Saint Samson of Dol placed the capstone with his little finger.
Cornwall's quoits show how fragile a dolmen can be. Lanyon Quoit, near Morvah, collapsed in a storm in 1815 and was re-erected nine years later, so that it looks very different from its original form; it now has three support stones 1.5 metres high. In Kent the Medway megaliths include Kit's Coty House, where an antiquarian recorded in 1722 a local belief that it commemorated two rival kings of Kent who died in battle, and a folk tale of 1946 told that three witches from Blue Bell Hill raised it. Both are folklore.
Because many dolmens were rebuilt or lost their mounds, the Atlas dates for them are approximate.
When visiting, look for the capstone and its supports and, in Pembrokeshire, for the position of the monuments near the coast path.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Pentre Ifan, Wikipedia: Carreg Samson, Wikipedia: Lanyon Quoit, Wikipedia: Kit's Coty House, Wikipedia: Dolmen · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1873
The collapse of the structure may have been the result of the removal of a stone before 1873, as depicted by the date of when a drawing of the structure was produced.
Source
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Photographs
2 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4500–1800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypological estimate, not a date for this site: a dolmen in the British Isles is normally dated between 4500 BCE and 1800 BCE (Atlas typological table).Source for this date
Measured facts
- Location
- northeast of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll, Anglesey, WalesSource: Location
- Type
- Neolithic dolmenSource: Type
- Country
- United KingdomSource: Country
Where it stands
United Kingdom
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 53°13′34″ N, 4°11′25″ WFor a GPS or map app: 53.22614, -4.19028
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 Chamber4000–2500 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 Q108800151wikidata.org
- 02Wikipedia (en)en.wikipedia.org
Image files
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Ty Mawr Burial Chamber<0.1 km W
- Ty-Wyn Standing Stone2.3 km NE
- Llandegfan Maen Hir2.3 km NE
- Goetre Uchaf barrow2.8 km SE
- Plas Newydd Burial Chambers3.1 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 "Ty Mawr Burial Chamber" (English), 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