Cors-y-Gedol Settlements & Field System

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument.

A complex of settlements and field systems on the upland pasture above Cors-y-Gedol. Perhaps the earliest features are 3 burnt mounds (cooking places) used in the Bronze Age (c. 2,300 BC - 800 BC) and Early Iron Age (c. 800 BC - 400 BC), but the area also includes 2 enclosed homesteads as well as individual round huts and larger enclosures of the Iron Age or Romano-British period (c. 800 BC - AD 400).

Medieval (c. AD 1066 - AD 1540) and post-medieval (c. AD 1540 - AD 1899) settlement is represented by at least 3 groups of rectangular building foundations. In between the settlements is an intricate pattern of early field boundaries, visible as low stony banks, low walls and lynchets (terraces formed by many years of early cultivation). These define small field plots, larger enclosures and possibly more extensive land divisions. Many of these can be associated with the prehistoric/Romano-British and medieval/post-medieval settlements, and together they provide a particularly valuable example of human settlement and land use over many centuries.

The monument is of national importance, individually, many of the features have survived in good condition, but it is also the variety and extent of the remains which give the site particular importance. 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.