Gardden Camp & Barrows

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 a hillfort, which probably dates to the Iron Age period (c. 800 BC - AD 74, the Roman conquest of Wales). Hillforts are usually located on hilltops and surrounded by a single or multiple earthworks of massive proportions. Hillforts must have formed symbols of power within the landscape, while their function may have had as much to do with ostentation and display as defence. Y Gardden Camp comprises a circular hillfort on the summit of hill. Its defences are univallate, consisting of a bank up to 2.5m high on the exterior face, and between 0.5m to 1.5m high on the interior face. The bank is best preserved on the SE side, on either side of the simple entrance which measures c. 2.3m wide. The encircling outer ditch has been reduced to a level platform, reaching a max. depth of 0.2m. The enclosure measures c. 45m diameter and has steep outer slopes on all except the east side where a bank, measuring up to 0.8m in height, with a weak outer ditch has been constructed across the ridge c. 25m E of the circular enclosure. The scheduled area was extended to the NNW in January 1991 enclosing a sloping area on which two barrows had been noted on air photographs and were stated as being traceable on the ground.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of later prehistoric defensive organisation and settlement. The site forms an important element within the wider later prehistoric context and within the surrounding landscape. The site is well preserved and retains considerable archaeological potential. There is a strong probability of the presence of evidence relating to chronology, building techniques and functional detail.

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