NAR SS88NW4

This is a roughly oval earthwork enclosure set on south-east facing slopes, within which is a rectangular building platform. The published inventory description can be amended in the light of recent RCAHMW aerial reconnaissance.
The 0.17ha enclosure is roughly 55m north-south by 52m, and appears to be defined by two banks with a ditch between. It is badly plough damaged and no entrance can be identified. The hooded and terraced house platform rests within the western bank. It is 12m east-west by 10m. From it a bank cuts off the northern end of the enclosure, creating an oval yard 16-20m across.
It is likely that the house platform and yard were inserted into an ealier enclosure. The platform is one of a string of similar monuments set into the hillside to the south-west (NPRN 15350-51, 307277). These are characteristic of thirteenth century and later upland settlement in the region.
The enclosure itself appears to be a later Prehistoric settlement enclosure. The fields in which it lies form an anomaly in the local field enclosure pattern and from the air give the impression of a large 3.4ha curvilinear enclosure resting on a small stream to the north-east. Such an arrangement can be paralleled at the nearby sites of Y Bwlwarcau (NPRN 301303), Moel Ton Mawr (NPRN 301334) & Ton Mawr (NPRN 301338).

Source: RCAHMW Glamorgan Inventory III.2 Medieval Secular non-Defensive (1982), 34

John Wiles 14.12.07