1. CPAT description and site visit 2007 (PRN 194): Well-preserved univallate hillfort, measuring 210m N/S by 105m E/W, which occupies the summit of Roundton Hill. The surface of the interior is irregular and formed of a series of rock outcrops interspersed with natural grassy terraces. The best possibility for a hut site lies immediately to the S of the entrance in the NE part of the enclosure, where there is a level patch of ground some 10m in diameter. The entrance consists of a simple gap, 2m wide at the base but 8m wide at the top of the rampart, and is approached by a zig-zag track that commences at the saddle separating Roundton from the next hill to the ENE. The stone and earth rampart varies between 7m and 10m wide and generally consists of a level terrace, c.2m wide, surmounting an external scarp that varies from 2m to 3m high, where the ground drops away to the S, W and N. Occasionally (on the S and NE) the rampart is up to 0-5m high internally, but this configuration is rare. Most of the E side is without a rampart, its place being taken by a very steep E-facing rocky scarp, approximately 50m high (CPAT Defended Enclosures in Montgomeryshire Project 2007-8).

2. Aerial photography provides extra detail for this small hillfort. CPAT aerial photography from 1980 (80-C-0208), and also 2023 Welsh Government LiDAR, clearly shows remnants of an out-turned lower south-west gateway, possibly partly blocked, standing at SO 293 949. This shows a second, lower access in and out of the defended enclosure.

Royal Commission aerial reconnaissance on 16th August 2024 (see: AP_2024_1967) also identified a longer additional rampart or linear earthwork springing from the northernmost angle of the hillfort, and running west downslope for 200m. This earthwork continues the line of the northern hillfort rampart, but appears to date from an earlier phase of enclosure of a far larger area of the hilltop and western slope. The earthwork runs between the outcrops and undulations of the natural slope, using the steeper scarp edge to its north, but no clear evidence of a return of this outer bank to the south can be seen. It is possible that this earthwork represents the vestiges of a Neolithic or Bronze Age hilltop enclosure - potentially enclosed with a palisade - which was originally two or three times larger than Roundton Hillfort. This earthwork shows on some early 1980s CPAT aerial photos but has not been previously remarked upon.

Toby Driver, RCAHMW, September 2024