Bryn Eryr Rectangular Earthwork

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument.

The monument comprises the remains of an enclosed settlement, located in low-lying fields and dating to the Iron Age and Romano-British period (c.800BC - AD400). It is a rectangular enclosure, its long axis NE-SW, now defined by a low bank, c.0.2 m high, with traces of an external ditch. Both are very slight as the result of ploughing. A modern field boundary crosses the site from the NE to the SW, dividing it into two unequal parts, the larger to the NW.

The enclosed area to the NW of the field boundary, some 66m by 47m, was excavated by Gwynedd Archaeological Trust between 1985 and 1987 identifying a sequence of occupation beginning in the Middle Iron Age. This first phase consisted of a single clay-walled round house within a timber stockade. By the later Iron Age, a second house had been added, adjacent to the first and both were enclosed by a bank and ditch. Rectangular post-built structures, possibly granaries, were built and pits dug to provide clay flooring and wall plastering. By the early 1st millennium AD, the perimeter ditch had become choked with silt. A third house was added at this time and the farm seems to have been abandoned some time during the late 3rd or 4th centuries.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of Iron Age and Romano-British settlement and defence. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated archaeological features and deposits. The structures themselves may be expected to contain archaeological information concerning chronology and building techniques.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.