Parc Cwm Long Cairn - Location

Location

Further information: Gower Peninsula and Parkmill

The Neolithic cromlech at Parc le Breos is about seven ½ miles (12 km) west south–west of Swansea, Wales, near the centre of the Gower Peninsula, midway between the villages of Llanrhidian and Bishopston. Its nearest village is Parkmill, a small rural settlement about one mile (1.5 km) to the south–east.

Parc Cwm long cairn lies on the floor of a dry, narrow, limestone gorge, at an elevation of about 50 feet (15 m) above sea level, less than 1 ¼ miles (2 km) from the south coast of the Gower Peninsula. It is in about 500 acres (200 ha) of woodland called Coed y Parc, the remnants of a former medieval deer park (Parc le Breos) from which the cromlech derives its alternative name: Parc le Breos burial chamber. Established as an enclosed area of about 2,000 acres (810 ha) by John de Braose, Marcher Lord of Gower, in about 1221–32 CE, the park is now mainly farmland. A 19th-century hunting lodge about 1,200 yards (1.1 km) north–east of Parc Cwm long cairn has been converted into a hotel and pony trekking (horse riding) centre called Parc le Breos.

Coed y Parc is owned and managed by Forestry Commission Wales. The site is open to the public free of charge and has parking for 12–15 cars about 750 feet (230 m) away. Facing the car park on the opposite side of the lane, a kissing gate allows wheelchair access to a level asphalt track running past the cromlech down the length of the gorge, passing within about 10 feet (3.0 m) of the cairn. Parc Cwm long cairn is maintained by Cadw (English: to keep), the Welsh Government's historic environment division.