Standing a few metres east of Cardigan Bay in north Pembrokeshire, Trellyffaint is a Neolithic portal dolmen, a type of chambered tomb that represents what is thought to be the earliest architectural style in western Britain (with a probable date range of c.3800-2800 BC). Its name, which might be translated as ‘Toad’s Hall’, stems from the early medieval historian and geographer, Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales), who believed that its occupant was a chieftain who had been devoured by toads. Even without such colourful legends, though, Trellyffaint is special. This area of Wales boasts the largest concentration of Neolithic burial- ritual monuments, numbering around 60 extant sites with a further 70 surviving as ruins or place-names, but among these Trellyffaint is unusual in that it may have two chambers, something paralleled at only a handful of sites in western Britain. The monument is also one of only nine Neolithic chambered tombs in Wales that has rock art on its capstone.
On a local level, Trellyffaint is one of eight extant stone chambered sites that occupy the ridges and coastal fringes of the Nevern Valley, all of which retain unique architectural traits though generically they are either portal dolmens (such as Trellyffaint and Llech y Dribedd) or hybrids associated with the Cotswold-Severn Group of monuments, such as Pentre Ifan. One of its closest neighbours is Trefael, once classified as a Bronze Age standing stone, which also has cupmarks gouged on to the upper surface of a probable chamber capstone (see CA 276). The prevalence of prehistoric monuments is not surprising: archaeological evidence from this valley and its estuary shows that this slightly undulating landscape was exploited by both Mesolithic and Neolithic communities, who utilised the rich food resources available and gathered beach pebbles to make flint and chert tools, although evidence for settlements is still lacking.
As for Trellyffaint itself, today the burial monument is much-ruined thanks to many years of farming that has ploughed out the cairn and earthen mound that once covered the stone chambers. The remnants of a mound edge can still be seen from above, however, and it is possible to reconstruct something of its original layout. It seems likely that the main chamber had been rectangular in plan, with a small chamber located to the west, now surviving as three upright stones. The capstone over the main chamber appears to have been oriented north-west/south-east and measures 2.1m by 1.8m, but has been moved at some time in the recent past, and on top of the capstone are up to 75 cupmarks, along with several gouged lines.
