Hut Circle West of Pen-y-Bryn

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 isolated hut circle that probably dates to the Iron Age or Romano-British period (c.800 BC - AD 400). The walls are visible as a circular grassy bank, approximately 2m wide and 0.4m high and are unusually well preserved with some facing stones still recognisable. The hut is about 7m in internal diameter with an entrance gap approximately 1.5m wide at the south side and has been scarped into the gentle NW-facing slope. It is terraced into the slope to a depth of about 1.5m and raised on a terrace on the downslope side.

There are traces of a boulder wall c.1m wide extending south from the west side of the hut entrance. Although of different construction to the hut wall this could be the remains of some kind of porch, annexe or platform. In the immediate vicinity are also the remains of several early field boundaries, now much disturbed.

Isolated huts are relatively rare and represent an important compliment to the more widespread settlement pattern reflected by hut groups. The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of later prehistoric domestic construction practices. It retains significant archaeological potential and there is a strong probability that structural evidence has survived, together with internal and external floor surfaces.

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