CM386

Panthir Defended Enclosure  

05/02/2010  

Designated  

Carmarthenshire  

Llangeler  

237194  

233914  

Defence  

Enclosure - Defensive  

Prehistoric  

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument. The site comprises a defended enclosure which dates to the Iron Age (c.800BC - 43AD). The enclosure stands in wet pasture, with streams running past the north, east and south sides. It consists of a substantial oval bank, 7m in width, which is best preserved at the north and north east before fading away to almost nothing on the south and south west. A simple entrance is clearly visible on the south east, and on the west side there appears to be some evidence for a waterlogged external ditch. At its highest, at the north east, the bank has an external height of almost 2.5m, by the entrance on the south east side the height is 1m and to the south and south west it is barely visible. On the west and north west sides it stands to an external height of 0.8m. The change in heights counteracts the slope of the ground, resulting in a slightly sunken interior which is almost level. The area enclosed is 35m north west-south east, and c.80m south west-north east. The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge about Iron Age settlement and the prehistoric environment. Of particular note is the wet pasture within and around this monument, making it likely that paleo-environmental evidence will survive. Of additional significance is its location close to the line of the early Medieval defences of Clawdd Mawr and consideration is given to the possibility that Panthir may have been re-used during this period. The scheduled area comprises those remains described and an area around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive. It is trapezoidal, and measures 115m N-S by 85m E-W.