Crug yr Afan Bwlch mountain pass 60 metres from the Rhondda Cynon Taff / Bridgend County line road sign . . (map ref: SS920954) .
I hiked over the Bwlch Mountain along the edge Craig Fawr before heading west to Crug Yr Afan , 7km hike from my house . The Cairn is a variant of a Bell barrow . This type of cairn has a mound within a circular ditch is more likely to be found in southern England or on the other side of the Bristol Channel on Exmoor . Not on the hills and mountains of South Wales .Crug y Afan may have been constructed by a nomadic race who migrated from central and southern Europen and across Britain during the early Bronze Age known as the beaker people around 4,000 years ago .
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The hike .
The site was excavated in 1902. Cremated bones were found contained inside a cist (a box-like chamber) together with a grooved ogival dagger dating from the Early Bronze Age period (ca. 2500 to 1450 BC). In the 1960s pollen samples were obtained from the cairn which indicated that heather moorland and oak woodland were widespread in the region during the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods. (source : Prehistoric Wales )
Taking in the rays of the Autumn sun while looking north at the majestic twin peaks of Carn Du and Pen y Fan .
Motorcycle tracks .Council , the forestry commision could make more to protect the site ..Moving the gate at the rear of the cairn 50 metres in any direction .
Steel bar attached to large lump of concrete in cyst . Trig point possibly .
Crug yr Afan Cairn on a Cairn ?
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Craig Fawr
