Round Barrows: Bronze Age Wales’ Treasures of the Beaker People

This post was last updated on August 24th, 2024 at 04:53 pm

Round barrows, Bronze Age burial sites called “cairns” in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, are ancient graves their creators covered with a mound of earth. There are two types of barrows: long and round.

Why are round barrows, Bronze Age burial mounds, often referred to as “cairns” in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales—and is there any difference? The terms “barrow” and “cairn” are sometimes used interchangeably, but they can have different meanings. A barrow is a burial mound from ancient times. The word “barrow” comes from the Old English word “beorg.” Beorg originates from Germanic and is related to the German word “berg,” meaning “hill” or “mountain.

A “cairn” is a mound of stones used to cover a grave, as a landmark, or as a memorial. The word “cairn” comes from Scottish Gaelic “carn,” which means “pile of stones.” The Welsh word for this is also “carn.” Often, cairns were placed over burial mounds, but not always. They were sometimes made symbolically. Cairns were often used to cover burials where the soil was rocky, or digging a deep grave, such as in mountainous regions, would have been difficult or impossible.

The etymology of the words “barrow” and “cairn” is one of the reasons ancient burial mounds in England are referred to as “barrows.” In the Celtic countries like Cymru (Wales), which this article will focus on, gravesites covered with stones are called “cairns.” The word “cairn” can refer to the grave, the pile of stones, or both. However, there are still barrows in Wales (the same or similar constructions you’d find in England), so we’ll use both terms as appropriate. 

This post is about round barrows: Bronze Age Wales’ burial mounds. 

Round Barrows Bronze Age Wales

Wales’ Round Barrows: Meaning and Design

What is a round barrow? A round barrow is a hill-shaped burial mound. In Wales, the Beaker Folk of the Bronze Age used this method to bury their dead. However, round barrows were built from the late Neolithic to the beginning of the Iron Age, with the majority dating to the Bronze Age. You can also find tens of thousands of round barrows in Western Europe, the Americas, and elsewhere. 

Besides being called “cairns,” burial sites in Wales can be called by other terms depending on the structure of the grave. For instance, a “cromlech” is a megalithic tomb built of several large upright stones supporting a large, flatter capstone. After being built, the structure was then covered over with earth. Sometimes, the builders also covered the earth with a cairn. So, there’s also an example of how words like “cairn,” “barrow,” and “grave” could get used interchangeably. 

Prehistoric peoples constructed two types of barrows: long barrows and round barrows. Long barrows are elongated grave mounds. They were usually built of only earth or a combination of earth with wood or stone. Neolithic people of the earliest agricultural communities built these types of barrow from about 3,800 – 3,500 BC. Some long barrows are chambered, while others are not. Round barrows are spherical and were built in the Bronze Age from about 2,000 – 1,500 BC. The Cwm Bwch Barrows in Powys, South Wales, are an example of this type. We’ll focus on round barrows: Bronze Age Wales’ windows into this intriguing historical time.  

Round Barrows Bronze Age Facts

Ancient societies built round barrows to bury their dead. These barrows appear throughout Western Europe, the British Isles, and other parts of the world, such as the Americas.

Burial practices changed during the transition from the Neolithic Age to the Bronze Age. While in the Stone Age, people built long chambered tombs (long barrows), in the Bronze Age, they abandoned this funeral style and buried their dead in round barrows.

You may also see a round barrow referred to as a “tumulus (plural “tumuli),” as they were called on early maps. The word tumulus is from Middle English, which comes from Latin and means a human-created mound or small hill. It especially refers to an ancient grave. 

Round barrow tombs are divided into five shapes: bell, saucer, pond, bowl, and disc.

Who Built the Round Barrows in Wales?

The Beaker People (also “Beaker Folk” or the “Beakers”) were the builders of the round barrows dotting the landscape of the British Isles. These ancient tribal people are so named because of the bell-shaped pottery they made. They buried their dead along with their beakers (the pottery) in the round barrows and similar structures. 

Sometimes, the Beaker Folk buried one individual alone in the grave, probably a tribal chieftain or other significant person. At other times, they buried many people together. Excavations across the British Isles show that no specific burial practice remained constant—it varied by region and tribe. 

Older Than Stonehenge

Long barrows, and some round barrows as well, actually predate Stonehenge, the ironic prehistoric structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. Builders constructed the massive stone circle in several stages spanning 1,500 years from the Neolithic Period into the early Bronze Age. Stonehenge’s builders obtained its bluestones (spotted dolerite) from quarries in the Preseli Mountains in Southwest Wales. Many other stones used in the megalith’s construction were also obtained from Wales.

Where Can I Find Round Barrows in Wales?

Here are some sites of round barrows tombs from Bronze Age Wales you might like to visit:

Featured Books 

Cromlechs and Cairns in Northern Wales by Michael Senior

A cromlech is a megalithic tomb in Wales. It’s constructed of several standing stones placed vertically and one large, flat capstone placed on top. This structure was then covered with earth, often leaving an opening to serve as a door. Some cromlechs, like Bryn Cader Faner, have a narrow passage made of stone leading to the inner chamber.

From the blurb:

Following the pattern of his previous books about northern Wales’ prehistoric artefacts, the standing stones and the hillforts, Michael Senior now deals in a similar way with the earliest of them all—the burial chambers and cairn burials—by setting them in their universal contexts, then tracing the origin of the forms, as well as dealing with the examples of them here in detail.

The Beaker Folk (Ancient Peoples & Places) by Richard J. Harrison—Copper Age Archaeology in Western Europe

The Beaker Folk is a very detailed account of the people and their way of life. While it may not be for everyone (not for the casual reader, for instance), ancient history enthusiasts will find themselves in their element between these pages. You can also read about the Beaker People in the post Ancient Welsh People. 

Neolithic and Bronze Age Funerary and Ritual Practices in Wales, 3600-1200 BC by Geneviève Tellier

What the book is about: 

Neolithic and Bronze Age Funerary and Ritual Practices in Wales describes how Neolithic burial grounds were studied and how funerary practices changed with the construction of round barrows, Bronze Age Wales’ preferred method of interment. The Prehistoric Society has also provided a comprehensive review of the book here.  

This book gathers, for the first time, all the burial and funeral practices in Wales from the middle of the Neolithic Age until the point that the Middle Bronze Age ended (3600-1200 BC) into one complete volume. It is the first to offer a modern summary of monument forms and burial practices in Neolithic and Bronze Age Wales. The book provides a thorough overview of all human bone deposits (both cremation and burial) from this period. It includes the analysis of over 250 human bone deposits, with new insights and interpretations. The book also discusses current debates on the changing nature and importance of burial rites in later prehistory.

The Beaker Folk of the Bronze Age may be gone, but they left us an incredible wealth of information about their way of life. For more information on notable sites from this period, visit Cadw, Wales’ historic preservation service.

This post was all about round barrows: Bronze Age Wales’ burial sites.