TINKINSWOOD BURIAL CHAMBER

Tinkinswood burial chamber from the front OS Map 171
OS ref ST092733
West of Cardiff

This chambered barrow was excavated in 1914 and has a capstone estimated to weight over 40 tons - one of the heaviest of all British sites. It is thought that it would have needed 200 people to move it.

The chamber contained the bodies of at least 50 people, 8 children amongst them. Items found during excavation suggest that the chamber was used until 2000 B.C.

It has an unusual wedge shaped frontage area of the Severn-Cotswold style 

 

 
There are various legends associated with the chamber, be warned, one is that if you sleep here on the night before May Day, St. John's Day or Midwinter's Day you will die, go mad or become a poet! Another legend says that the stones are women who danced on a Sunday and were thus turned to stone.

There is an unusual stone sided pit behind the main structure.

Just a short distance away is St. Lythan's Long Barrow.

The large capstone at Tinkinswood

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