St Lythans Burial Chamber

Lonely Neolithic tomb with links to Arthurian legend

This bare and imposing Neolithic (New Stone Age) tomb stands alone in the centre a field on the outskirts of Cardiff. While it was originally covered by an earthen mound around 90ft/27m in length, only traces of this now remain, leaving its huge stones fully exposed to the skies. 

The largest is the massive capstone, still supported by three unusually tall uprights. Excavations in 2012 demonstrated that originally the burial chamber was buried within a large cairn of stones 30m long and 12m wide.  The chamber itself has never been excavated, so who or what is buried here remains a mystery.

Despite its Neolithic origins, the site’s name may derive from the Arthurian legend of Culhwch and Olwen, which appears in two 14th-century texts.