Bryn Celli Ddu

*Bryn Celli Ddu* (Dark Grove Barrow) is a prehistoric Neolithic site located on the island of *Anglesey* in North *Wales*. Its present-day landmark is a cairn housing a stone burial chamber. Inside the cairn is a smooth stone column approximately two meters high. Although the size of the cairn today is considerably smaller than when it was built, it is still one of the best-preserved monuments of its kind. The passageway itself dates from the late third to early second millennia BC. The access road is 8.4 meters long and is oriented towards the east at the summer solstice, when light naturally penetrates into the burial chamber. Originally, however, the passage was closed off by a large stone. The tomb was used repeatedly and at different times, as evidenced by different burial practices.

Archaeological research conducted in the late 1920s revealed that the burial chamber had been built on top of an older ritual circular monument – called a *henge* – that had been built on the site a thousand years earlier. This is evidenced by the discovery of a carved stone decorated with wavy, serpentine patterns at the site originally located under the mound. The mound also includes other stone remains of the original *henge*.