Hut Circle (and Early Field System) on Bryn Seward

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument.

The monument consists of a portion of relict landscape, probably dating to the prehistoric or medieval period. The area includes the remains of a field system, incorporating a well-preserved stone-built enclosure surrounding a hut (possibly modified by a later sheepfold), clearance cairns, lynchets (banks formed at the end of a field by soil which, loosened by the plough, gradually moves down slope through a combination of gravity and erosion) and a number of less well-defined lengths of walling, small enclosures or huts. There are also a number of probable burial cairns which are likely to date to the Bronze Age (c. 2300 - 800 BC). The features lie across a local ridge to either side of an ancient routeway through the Meirionnydd hills, and are among a number of sites in the local area which represent the ritual and settlement landscape along this routeway.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric/medieval settlement and agricultural practices and of prehistoric burial and ritual practices. The site is well preserved and retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated archaeological features and deposits, including both intact ritual and burial deposits, together with environmental and structural evidence, and evidence relating to chronology, building techniques and functional detail. The site forms an important element within the surrounding landscape. This field system and cairns are part of a larger cluster of monuments, the importance of which is 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.