HLW (D) 1

Black Mountain and Mynydd Myddfai  

2002  

Outstanding  

Designated  

The area comprises the foothills and slopes on the north west side of the Black Mountain, bounded by Mynydd Myddfai on the north at 440 m above OD and a ridge of slightly lower hills to the south west, which overlooks the Tywi valley east of Llandeilo. The area is heavily dissected by small, steep-sided valleys and is dominated by the summits along the Black Mountain watershed, the highest of which rise to about 800m above OD in the south east. The area contains rich and diverse evidence of land use exemplifying the dynamic interrelationship between upland and lowland that is so typical of much of Wales, from the prehistoric period to the recent past. On the lower slopes and narrow valley floors of some, though significantly not all, the steep-sided valleys on the north west sides of Mynydd Myddfai and the Black Mountain, are small and large agglomerations of ruined, drystone-walled longhouses. These have recently been mapped, planned and studied in detail, but to date none has been excavated. Their date range is uncertain though conjectured, on broadly morphological grounds, to be medieval. Much earlier, Bronze Age use of the uplands is suggested however, during more favourable climatic conditions, by numerous large and prominently sited cairns, more localised standing stones and two groups of stone circles and, in some places, of regularly laid out field systems whose walls are partly sealed by peat. The transitional zone between the open moorland and enclosed fields and woodland is, in some parts of the area, marked by lengths of substantial bank and ditch, sections of which can be shown to be of at least 16th century in date. This boundary is breached by many roads and tracks which are the physical evidence of the dynamic interrelationship between the unenclosed uplands and the landscape of dispersed settlement and small enclosed fields on the lower slopes. In this context, it is uncertain whether the longhouses are permanent settlements or the summer dwellings of a transhumance régime. Although sheep have now replaced cattle as the main stock grazed on the open moorland, seasonal grazing is still part of the farming economy of the adjacent farms. A number of large regular, but now ruinous, drystone-walled sheepfolds are sited both on the edge of the open moorland and deep within it. Although no extensive survey has yet been undertaken, it is highly likely that the present vegetational pattern of the uplands has been heavily influenced by grazing practices and many slight but significant earthwork traces attest to the constant effort to improve that grazing. Whilst the open uplands are now perceived as a barrier to communication, in all earlier periods until the turnpike road era, they were criss-crossed by routes. Roman marching camps within the area at y Pigwn and Arosfa Garreg control two crossmountain roads which served as major routes from the Usk to the Tywi valleys until the 1790s.They focus in the foothills of the Black Mountain and Mynydd Myddfai on two nucleated settlements, Myddfai and Llangadog, whose economic raison d’être were seasonal fairs and markets for the surrounding region. (Llangadog is currently outside the area described here). In recent times, the most important impetus for exploitation of the uplands from adjacent areas was lime production, the main fertiliser from the late 17th until the mid-19th centuries. A palimpsest of deeply rutted cart tracks ascend to the quarry and kiln sites. The area contains hundreds of kilns from small, early, sod kilns to large drystone-walled structures. Areas of surviving ancient woodlands within the enclosed foothills suggest that many of the small, irregular fields originate as assarts (private holdings) from a more extensive forest cover. The area lies within the commote of Perfedd which came late under Anglo-Norman political control; Welsh language, tenure, law and social systems were never wholly superseded. Medieval documentation for holdings and land use is sparse, but folklore sources are revealing. The area contains the locus for the famous legends of the Lady of the Lake in Llyn y Fan Fach, ancestress of the hereditary Physicians of Myddfai (Meddygon Myddfai). The farms recorded in the legends still exist and may thus be of 12th century date, since the legends recorded in the 14th century Red Book of Hergest link Rhiwallon the Physician to the court of the Lord Rhys of Deheubarth.