Cytiau'r Gwyddelodd is one of several clusters of prehistoric type settlement features on Ynys Leurad which were investigated in 1874. The low offshore islet lies just off Anglesey in the Holyhead strait and was once the main crossing point between the two isles.
The southern settlement cluster comprised at least three buildings of which two were cleared in 1874. These were a 6.4-6.8m internal diameter roundhouse and a near square building, 3.4-3.7m across internally. Both were stone founded, the square building with 1.5m wide walling. Finds included a saddle quern and spindle whorls, but apparently no Roman material as is often the case with similar settlements.

There were numerous other settlement features on the islet and these can be resolved into several discrete clusters rather than a single dispersed mass. One cluster can be discerned about 100m to the north. This included two roundhouses, 9.0m and 6.5m across. Other features on the isle included a ruined house and garden and an old storehouse. All these features are shown on early editions of the OS County series (Anglesey XI.12 1889, 1900, 1924).

Sources: Stanley in Archaeologia Cambrensis 4th series 9 (1878), 134-5
RCAHM Anglesey Inventory (1937), 115-6

John Wiles 29.08.07