Description: The circle is 12m (40ft) in diameter, consisting of 25 outwards-facing stones, and the central cist has its east side stone and capstone missing. It seems that there is no entry to the circle and no trace of a covering mound.The cairn appears vividly against the skyline when it is approached along the track-way from the North.

'The altar stone, or flat stone from the top of central chamber now lies about 100 yards away from stone circle. Unfortunately, this was apparently removed by the gas board a few years ago. If you look in the farm field to the south west of circle, you will see another stone circle with much larger stones. This was constructed by the gas board to stop the farmers cows from rubbing against the machinery that was stored there. This was going to be the use for the large flat stone. This circle is often mistaken for the original stone circle by many people'. (1)

It is an unusual circle of 25 stones leaning slightly outwards and surrounding a central burial cist. Aubrey Burl in his "The Stone Circles of British Isles" wrote that such rings were thought to be the first stage of development of stone circles, but that these cairns, however, are almost certainly too late to provide such an ancestry. The reverse seems likely, that the existence of stone circles elsewhere impelled people to place tall stones around the bases of their own round cairns, a fusion of traditions resulting in monuments like spiky coronets.

The central cist (small chamber) has a clear orientation

Following the report in 2004 by two 'Ghost detectives' that they left the site feeling sick (2), it was suggested that there may have once been a 'sulphur spring' under the central chamber. (1)

 

Chronology:

The site is loosely dated at 'late Neolithic to  early Bronze age'. In the area there are also a Neolithic burial chamber.

 

The Cairn lies around 300m east of the Tor Glawydd high point.

Similar settings can be seen Bryn Cader Faner in Wales, and Arbor low in England.