Europe, British Isles, North-West Wales aka Gwynedd, Anglesey, Porth Trecastell, Barclodiad y Gawres Burial Chamber [Map]
Barclodiad y Gawres Burial Chamber is in Porth Trecastell, Prehistoric Anglesey Burial Chambers.
Barclodiad y Gawres Burial Chamber [Map] is Neolithic Passage Tomb with a significant number of decorated stones. Full excavations were performed in 1952–53, after which the chamber was re-roofed with concrete and covered with turf to resemble the original structure. During the excavations two cremated young male burials were found within the south-western side-chamber. The central area of the main chamber contained the remains of a fire on which had been poured a stew which had been made with wrasse, eel, frog, toad, grass snake, mouse, shrew and hare, then covered with limpet shells and pebbles. Gawres means Giantess, Barclodiad possibly Apron?
Archaeologia Cambrensis 1869 Page 403. Barclodiad Y Gawres [Map], And Camp At Trecastell.
Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion 1910. The remains at Mynydd Cnwc [Barclodiad y Gawres Burial Chamber [Map]], in the parish of Llangwyfan, and a mile and a half S.S.W. of Llanfaelog Church, are chronicled by David Thomas, while Bingley describes them as a "cromlech" partly demolished. Skinner says1: "Instead of a cromlech we found the vestiges of a large carnedd, many of the flat stones of the cistfaen, or chamber, are still remaining, but the small ones have been almost all removed to build a wall close at hand. On another fork of the peninsula, about a hundred yards distant, we observed the traces of another carnedd of much smaller dimensions".
Hugh Prichard2 gives the circumference of the base of the mound as perhaps 240 ft. The entrance he thought was from the north, the passage being at least 35 ft. long by rather more than 3 ft. wide, its extent being marked by a depression in the ground, and by seven stones which were all that remained of its side walls and roof supports. The remaining roof stone was 10 ft. by 5 ft. 6 ins. at its widest end, and was said to have been mistaken for the capstone of the cromlech. The upright slabs outlined one cell about 3 ft. 3 ins. by 3 ft. 9 ins., and other stones sug- gested further cells. On the other point, 150 yds. away, were well defined traces of a smaller tumulus, comprising one chamber. I quite agree with both Skinner and Prichard that the remains are those of a collection of cists and not of a dolmen or cromlech, properly so called. They are in a very ruinous condition. The small cist on the further promontory can still be traced.
The largest stone is sometimes called "Careg Enwau", from the number of names which tourists have scratched upon it. At the present time, however, Sir George Meyrick, on whose land it stands, does not allow the public access to it. It is named on the Ordnance Survey of 1841 as "Barclodiad y Gawres Cromlech", but in the later surveys the word "Cromlech" has been omitted. Sir Norman Lockyer orients it to the Winter Solstice sunrise (Az.S.50°.E.). W. B., p. 203 A. C., 1855, p. 25 Cam. Reg., ii, p. 288 1869, p. 403, fig. J. S., p. 45, fig. 1870, p. 58 J. E. G., fig. A. J., 1871, p. 106.
Note 1. J. S., p. 45.
Note 2. A. C., 1869, p. 403.