Hut Group West of Cwm Mawr

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument.

This multi-period settlement includes a hut-circle settlement of the Iron Age or Romano-British period (c.800 BC - AD 400) consisting of three huts and two small attached enclosures or yards and, close by, two rectangular huts, probably of the medieval period. The two elements represent two phases, or perhaps a long continuity of use. There are field walls of at least three periods, some associated with the round huts, some associated with the rectangular huts and some modern. A faint bank links the middle round hut and the smaller rectangular hut, and in the area thus enclosed is a slight suggestion of ridge and furrow.

The site lies on a low tongue of land projecting from the east side of a shallow valley and raised slightly from its marshy floor in an area of stony rough pasture.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric and possibly medieval domestic life and social organisation. The proximity of both Iron Age/Romano-British and medieval types of hut settlement, and their association with earlier field boundaries, suggests that there may have been continuity of occupation. This, combined with the well-preserved character of the features, ensures considerable archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of structural evidence and associated archaeological features and deposits. The importance of the monument is also emphasised by its group value with other similar monuments in the vicinity and by the unusual nature of the small enclosures attached to the hut circles.

The scheduled area consists of a quadrilateral ABCD, with sides of 75m (A-B), 72m (B-C along field wall), 108m (C-D) and 30m (D-A) covering the main hut settlement but with an extension CEFG on the east side, 20m, to include the additional rectangular hut foundation.