Extract from Hopewell and Smith (2007). SURVEY OF PREHISTORIC DEFENDED ENCLOSURES IN NORTH-WEST WALES: ASSESSMENT OF SOME POSSIBLY EARLY MULTIVALLATE CONCENTRIC ENCLOSURES IN LLYN AND ANGLESEY, 2006-7 Report No. 664, GAT Project No. G1770:

'This is a sub-circular bivallate enclosure, about 95m diameter overall. It lies on a very gentle rounded hill of gravelly sand at 50m OD overlooking a small stream, a tributary of the Afon Geirch, itself not much more than a stream, which flows into the sea on the coast to the north (Fig. 3). It is a sub-circular, bivallate enclosure and was first discovered from aerial photography and recorded in a study of cropmarks on the Ll?n peninsula by Richard Kelly (Ward and Smith 2001). The aerial photograph shows the two ditches clearly and there are a number of dark patches in the interior suggestive of roundhouse sites and a possible break in the outer bank at the east side that might be an entrance(Fig. 4). On the ground, the banks are just visible as very low earthworks.'

The survey has provided exceptionally good detail of the enclosure from which it is possible to say that it had at least two phases since three houses are built over the ditch of the inner rampart and slightly cut into the rampart. This shows that at some point the inner rampart was disused. The settlement may have simply expanded and been incorporated within a larger ringwork but it seems more likely that during one phase this was a bivallate enclosure. It is not possible to be certain of the order of phasing from the geophysical survey and it is possible that there were houses there before the construction of the enclosure banks as at Castell Odo, which began as an unenclosed, undefended settlement. The overall similarities with Castell Odo (Fig. 2) are striking and there the final phase of occupation was believed to have been in the Roman period after demolition of the entrance and with houses built over the levelled
banks (Alcock, 1960). However, there was no artefactual evidence to date this last period. At Bryn Rhydd there as also some evidence for a late phase postdating the defences. The apparent slight discontinuity in the line of the outer ditch at the northnorth-east coincides with a possible small rectangular enclosure that crosses the lie of the ditch and intrudes into the area of the rampart. The size and shape of this rectangular feature suggests that it was a rectangular platform house, terraced into the rampart. However, at Castell Odo a medieval pillow mound for rabbit farming was built within the enclosure and the feature at Bryn Rhydd could be similar.'

Source: Ward & Smith 2001 (Stud. Celt. 35), 1-87 [10-11 fig 2.11]

Re-photographed under good parchmark conditions by RCAHMW on 25th July 2006 and during the 2018 drought on 10 July 2018.

T. Driver 17/11/2006 and Jan 2019.

Additional source: Ward & Smith 2001 (Stud. Celt. 35), 1-87 [10-11 fig 2.11]