Wayland’s Smithy, or Wayland Smith’s Cave as it is also known, was originally a “cromlech” (a Brythonic word in Breton/Welsh used to describe prehistoric megalithic structures, where crom means "bent" and llech means "flagstone"). Wayland's Smithy is a Neolithic long barrow and chamber tomb. The site had been built in two different phases, a timber chambered oval barrow built around 3700 BC and the second stone chambered long barrow in around 3400 BC.

 

Legend has it that if you left your horse here with a coin, when you returned it would have been shod by the mythical Wayland Smith or Wolund, a Germanic smith-god. The Saxons, who settled in the area some four thousand years after Wayland’s Smithy was built, seemingly applied the name to the site.