Trefignath Neolithic Chambered Cairn
South of Holyhead, Holyhead, Wales OS
Map Ref SH25868055
OS Maps - Landranger 114 (Anglesey), Explorer 262 (Anglesey West)
View of the eastern chamber of Trefignath - looking north.
Eastern chamber - looking south.
At first sight the remains of
this Neolithicchambered
cairn are a confusing
jumble of flat slabs and scattered boulders
and indeed the original
layout of the site was not fully understood
until it was excavated between 1977-1979. Evidence of hearths, flint tools
and pottery found beneath the monument suggest the area was being used
as a settlement site prior to the building of a multi phase burial tomb
that started around 3100BC. The first phase of construction at what is
now the western end of the monument was a passage grave consisting of
a square tomb with an entrance towards the north which was then covered
with a circular stone cairn.
Later a larger rectangular 2.6 metre by 1.5 metre chamber was built on
the eastern side of the first tomb and the cairn was extended over the
whole structure. This wedge shaped cairn was faced with drystone walling
and had a forecourt in the style of Severn-Cotswold tombs like Parc-le-Breos
Cwm on the Gower Peninsula.
The final phase of the monument involved the building of a further rectangular
2.5 metre by 1 metre chamber towards the east in the existing forecourt
area thereby blocking the central chamber. The cairn was again extended
to cover all three chambers and a new drystone forecourt constructed.
Trefignath was partially reconstructed in 1980 following the excavation
and it is the eastern chamber that is the most complete part of the monument
with its pair of large portal stones (to the right of the picture at the
top of this page) standing beyond the smaller upright side slabs of the
tomb supporting a low capstone.
The middle phase chamber remains in a collapsed state while the side slabs
of the earlier western tomb were re-erected and can be seen as an open
box shape of low upright stones.
