[7][8] The cape was within a Bronze Age burial mound known as Bryn yr Ellyllon, which translates to "Goblins' Hill".

The gold cape had been placed on the body of a person who was interred in a rough cist (stone-lined grave) within the mound.

It seems most probable that the cape was used for ceremonial purposes, and may have signified the wearer as a person of spiritual or temporal power: the Bronze Age equivalent of a chasuble, perhaps.

The object was beaten out of a single ingot of gold, a task which would have taken considerable time and skill, and was then intensely decorated with repoussé concentric rings of ribs and bosses.

Above the groove is a line of conical bosses that run around the whole cape, but bifurcate at the front to rise up over the triangular panels at the upper arm.

This distinctive boss motif, surrounded by fine dots outlining the lenticular shape, has a long duration in Scotland and obviously survived in the indigenous repertoire to reappear on this unusual cape.

[14] With its fine repoussé work the Mold cape represents the last major piece of second millennium BCE sheetwork so far discovered.

Although the British Museum acquired the greater proportion in 1836, small fragments have come to light intermittently over the years and have been reunited with the larger portion.

Small fragments of the actual cape are on permanent display in the Daniel Owen Centre's museum in Mold.

Later, detailed study and restoration revealed the full form of the cape, which at one time had been misidentified as a peytrel (chest ornament) for a horse.

[19][20] In 2011, the Celtic League and Plaid Cymru's Westminster leader Elfyn Llwyd backed similar calls.

[23] In 2018, Delyn AM Hannah Blythyn repeated calls for its return, raising the matter in the Welsh Assembly and with the First Minister.

[24] In the same year, Denbighshire councillor Mabon ap Gwynfor, tweeted for the cape to be returned to Wales.

[26][27] The cape is referenced in the bluegrass song, "King of Boys", by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell.