BR417

Kidney-shaped enclosure 1km SE of Pen Allt-Mawr, Cwm Banw  

08/02/2012  

Designated  

Powys  

Llanfihangel Cwmdu with Bwlch and Cathedine  

321639  

223926  

Agriculture and Subsistence  

Enclosure - Agricultural  

Prehistoric  

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument. The monument comprises an irregular, roughly kidney-shaped enclosure measuring a maximum 50m E-W by 30m N-S, defined by collapsed stone walls and low scarps up to 3m wide. It is subdivided into two cells by a stony N-S scarp. There are no clear signs of any original entrances, nor of any communication between the two cells. It is not clear whether the two are contemporary; the irregular plan would suggest not. The eastern cell is more clearly marked and distinctly curvillinear in plan, whilst that to the west appears to have been faceted. Immediately outside the northern apex of the enclosure is a collapsed drystone structure no more than 4m in diameter, possibly a small cairn later converted into a shelter or shooting butt and probably unrelated to the enclosure. The site is remote from existing permanent settlement and is likely to have functioned as a stock enclosure or coral. This monument is of national importance in enhancing our understanding of upland agrarian exploitation in the Black Mountains. The enclosure is of unusual form, well preserved and potentially of more than one period of use. A larger pair of conjoined enclosures of very similar construction (BR418) lie roughly 500m to the SW. The scheduled area comprises the remains described and the area around them within which related evidence might be expected to survive. This is oval in plan measuring 75m E-W by 65m N-S.