NPRN91865
Map ReferenceSN60NW
Grid ReferenceSN6250005300
Unitary (Local) AuthoritySwansea
Old CountyGlamorgan
CommunityPontardulais
Type Of SiteBUILDING PLATFORM
PeriodMedieval
DescriptionTwo house platforms are located on the west-facing side of the ridge Twyn Tyle, at about 220m above OD.
The entire site is overgrown with bracken.
SN 62490530 The larger of the two measures 15.5m (WNW-ESE) by 4.5m. The hood is 1.7m deep and the terrace built out to 1.1m high. A track crosses the middle of the platform. A low bank runs around the lip of the terrace. Grassy banks lie at the foot of the platform, around the lower south side and the west end at a distance of 10m from the terrace lip; they form what is perhaps the perimeter of a yard or paddock.
SN62510531 This platform lies just above, and to the north-east, of its neighbour and has a slightly different orientation with respect to the slope. It measures 12m (E-W) by 4.2m. The hood is cut back to a depth of 0.7m and the lower end is built out to a height of 0.7m. It lies just above the track on the other side of which, and to the north-west, is a short length of bank.
Aerial photographs (1) show that the area around the platforms is covered in a dense network of cultivation ridges arranged in discrete plots. Under favourable light conditions these can be seen on the ground with, in a few cases, faint linear banks which bound the ridges. According to the APs, ridges actually impinge upon the northernmost platform (above) implying a later episode of land use for the ridge and furrow, at least in respect of this particular platform.
(1) OS AP 88/025/163
The platforms described here are probably sites TT1 ans TT2 described by Morris in 1984 (Gower, XXXV, 30).
David Leighton, RCAHMW, 7 June 1999