Bryn Celli Ddu a neolithic burial chamber that you can go inside and henge monument.
/Visiting this takes you back to the Neolithic period, 5000 years ago when farming had come to Britain . Cadw who look after this monument describe it as the best known prehistoric monument on Anglesey and one of the most evocative archaeological sites in Britain.
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Where is Bryn Celli Ddu?
Bryn Celli Ddu is to be found on the island of Anglesey in North Wales.It is 1 mile/1.6 km East south East of Llandaniel Fab with a post code of LL61 6EQ.
Why visit Bryn Celli Ddu
You have a wonderful opportunity to go inside a Neolithic tomb burial chamber. Inside the mound is a narrow passage which ends in a small chamber where human bones, arrowheads and carved stones were found.
You can walk all around it to get views and see what was once a henge monument. This a general term for a monument consisting of a circular ditch and bank surrounding it made from the soil dug out of the ditch which once enclosed a circle of stones, some of which are still in place. ( Please do not expect anything on the scale of Stonehenge)
If you visit Bryn Celli Ddu before sunrise on the longest day of the year, aka the summer solstice, you will see that the rising sun’s rays shine directly down the passage way to illuminate the chamber where the human remains were once placed. This is the only example of this alignment in Anglesey.
Having parked in the little car park, you will have a lovely gentle stroll through some lovely Welsh countryside to the mound.
What is the history of Bryn Celli Ddu?
The site was excavated in 1928-9 and the mound was then reconstructed for visitors to see. The reconstruction was smaller than the original mound which covered all of the stones in the passage, leaving none on the exterior, unlike 3.4 metres of the passage that you see today.
Bryn Celli Ddu translates into “the Mound in the Dark Grove but before the mound was created, a henge monument was created there about 5000 years ago. Unfortunately, the bank has disappeared but you can still see the ditch which has a diameter of 21 metres and some of the stones that once formed a circle. Henges have been found all over Britain with some having wooden circles, eg Woodhenge, rather than stone. An oval shape of 17 stones has been discovered with human remains buried at the base of some of them. Also in this period, a pit was dug within the oval that contained a human ear bone and covered with a flat stone.
A thousand years later, for some unknown reason, all of the stones were deliberately damaged, with some being knocked over and six being smashed with heavy stones. At the end of the Neolithic period, a burial mound called a passage tomb was created on this “special place”, they did not create henges or passage tombs just anywhere. There was a reason for choosing such places but this was an age before documents and so we do not have their reason. The mound had a circle of stones around it acting as a soil retaining wall. The tomb was in use for some time because human bones and burnt remains of human bones have been found. Other grave goods include 2 flint arrowheads, quartz, a stone bead as well as limpet and mussel shells. When its use came to an end the entrance was closed up with a large stone between 2 large upright stones.
Outside of the rear entrances a replica of a stone known as the “Pattern Stone”. It is thought that this used to be part of the orinal henge monument but became incorporated into the burial mound. It has got its name from having snake like patterns carved on both sides.The original stone is now to be found in the National Museum of Wales.
More recent archaeological work has discovered 5 postholes that date a thousand years earlier than the henge. Wood rots in soil but careful excavation can show that wood will leave behind dark stains in the soil where posts once entered the soil. What the posts were doing there has not yet been explained but they do show that this place was constantly being used and re-used for something special.
In 2019, a second flattened, burial chamber, 50m to the south of the one we can see, was discovered with carbon dating suggesting that it was built about a thousand years after the first mound was constructed.
Essential information
Getting there.
You really need a car to visit this monument. It is 1 mile/1.6 km East south East of Llanddaniel Fab with a post code of LL61 6EQ.
Tickets
It is free. Just go and explore.
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