Carn Goch Long Barrow, Llangatock, Breconshire, Powys, Wales, British Isles [Map]

Long Barrows of the Cotswolds. Carn Goch Long Barrow [Map]

Brecknockshire, 41 N.E. Parish of Llangattock. 6a*.

Latitude 51° 57' 08" Longitude 3° 08' 38". Height above O.D., between 270 & 300 feet.

The following account presumably refers to the site marked "Garn Goch" on the O.S. map:-

Some workmen recently engaged in clearing away a large heap of stones in Llangattock Park, the seat of his Grace the Duke of Beaufort, accidentally met with a cist or cromlech, consisting of four rude stones put up in the ground on their edges, while a fifth covers the top. On its being opened, a quantity of human bones were discovered, some of which soon crumbled to dust; but the bone of the arm and also the upper part of the jaw, part of the skull, and a row of teeth, were quite perfect, all of which were carefully collected and preserved. The size of the interior was 8 feet 6 inches long, 4 feet wide, reduced to 3 feet 10 inches at the other end, and 2 feet 2 inches high."

When I first visited the neighbourhood I heard indirectly that the rnonument in question was supposed not to be an antiquity and did not visit it. On August 17th, 1924 I visited it in company with Dr. Mortimer Wheeler, Director of the National Museum of Wales, and we agreed that the cairn was a long one of the same type as the other Brecknockshire examples. On the south-eastern side are the remnants of a large capstone, but for the rest it is impossible to make out any plan or order. In the wood close by on the east are a number of cairns which may be of natural origin.

Gentleman's Magazine, 1847, Pt. 2, p. 526 (quoted above).