Lluest Pencraig Ddu Deserted Rural Settlement

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument.

The monument consists of a lluest or shepherd’s homestead, likely to have been built and occupied sometime during the 17th or 18th centuries AD. These sites were simple homesteads intended to be occupied by a shepherd and his family and therefore needing to be capable of supplying them with all their needs. Contemporary descriptions describe conditions within as being poor, the occupants having few possessions, and living in cramped conditions within single roomed windowless houses. Even doors were a luxury, protection from the elements being more commonly in the form of a blanket hung across the doorway.

This homestead stands in a naturally sheltered location on a ridge at the head of the Nant Silo valley and comprises a simple house set upon an earth platform with a number of associated enclosures of varying dimensions. The house, which measures 6 x 3.5m in size, was single roomed and of simple construction. Attached to the house was a steep but well defined banked enclosure, probably used as a cultivated patch and close by a larger enclosure measuring 22 x 10m and defined by strong earth and stone banks which still stand up to 1m in height. The rest of the ridge also demonstrates a number of banks which serve to produce a series of enclosures which could have been used for controlling stock.

Pencraig Ddu has archaeological importance as a well preserved and apparently little disturbed example of a lluest. The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of settlement organisation and the rural economy of upland Wales. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated archaeological features and deposits. The structure itself may be expected to contain archaeological information concerning chronology and building techniques. A platform house may be part of a larger cluster of monuments and their importance can be further enhanced by their group value.

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