1. Three mounds are found on the south bank of Nant Goch below the steep slopes and crags of Moel Ddu. The mounds are reported to be composed of 'burnt and fused material' including broken tile and brick. Those at SH72693190 & SH72753191 are recognised as Roman tile kilns, whilst the third, at SH72693188, is thought to be a waster heap. Geophysical survey confirmed this identification.
In the eighteenth century Pennant regarded the mounds as funerary monuments, noting that five urns had been found in one and that, 'the whole materials of this tumulus are composed of burnt earth and stones with several fragments of bricks, which had been placed around the urns to keep them from being crushed'.
The contrasting locations of the two kilns, one open to the prevailing westerlies, the other set in a sheltered hollow, suggest that contrasting firing conditions were required.
Unidentified earthworks are situated on the far side of the Nant Goch (NPRN 406194). The Roman road running south of Tomen-y-Mur (NPRN 309188) passes within 15m of the western kiln.
A further Roman kiln has been excavated at Dolgain, some 900m to the south-south-east (NPRN 307248). NAR SH73SW4

Sources: Pennant 'Tours in Wales II' 1883 edition, 249-50
Lloyd-Jones & Hemp in Archaeologia Cambrensis 79 (1924), 202-3
Bowen & Gresham 'The History of Merioneth I' (1967), 262
Crew in Archaeology in Wales 30 (1990), 56-7

John Wiles 05.12.2002

2. Two oval structures, 6m to 9m in diameter, surrounded by 0.4m to 0.5m high stone banks, and with 1.5 to 2m diameter circular depressions in the centres. They are located a short distance east of Sarn Helen, Roman road. They may be Roman tile kilns and are associated with those recorded on GAT HER (PRN 2893). M. Evans, University of Sheffield, 31 March 2009.