1. Cropmarks of a subrectangular ditched enclosure, c.40m across, having an east facing entrance, which is involved with a group of at least four circular features, from 8.0 to 12m internal diameter. A ring ditch, of a similar size to those involved in this complex, is recorded c.450m to the ESE (Nprn401960)
J.Wiles 30.11.04

2. The Pyllau-isaf complex is sited centrally on a wide alluvial fan which opens at the junction of the minor Afon Llanfihangel tributary with the major lowland valley corridor of the Afon Ystwyth. The level expanse is bordered by low hills on all but the south side. Set across the Ystwyth valley to the south-west is the Llanilar settlement and burial complex (Briggs (ed), 1997). In the nineteenth century an urn within a cairn was discovered here, recorded on the gravestone of William Hughes in Llanbadarn Fawr churchyard. Although the discovery has since become confused with Penyberth (Gloucester Hall) to the north (see Briggs 1994, no. 299), Briggs (ibid., no. 311, 204-5) notes that the epitaph is the earliest and clearest account of an urn being found in 1840 in a field called Cae'r-odyn on the farm of Pyllau-isaf. The urn (now in the National Museum of Wales) is a fine vessel with corded decoration standing about 20cm high (ibid., Fig. 25.5).

This antiquarian discovery is put into a fuller context by a series of cropmark discoveries made at Pyllau-isaf between 1995 and 2006. The complex comprise two enclosures, one square, the other circular, and at least seven plough-levelled round barrows. The square enclosure (41m square; NPRN 400286) is an anomaly in such a very low-lying situation on the floodplain of the Ystwyth. Square enclosures are a relatively common site type among the defended enclosures of Iron Age Wales; they have been the subject of a recent campaign of survey and excavation in southern Ceredigion (Murphy et al. 2004), while a polygonal earthwork enclosure (58m square; NPRN 400287) with a substantial bank lies just 900 metres to the south-west, on the slopes below Pen-y-castell hillfort, Llanilar. The Pyllau-isaf enclosure may not be Iron Age; it is narrow-ditched, with irregular corners, one rounded, the others squared, with a simple entrance on the east side. A cemetery of up to four plough-levelled round barrows lies on the west side but one is `incorporated? into the boundary of the enclosure, forming a semi-circular apse. This may be a form of mortuary enclosure, highly unusual on the west coast of Wales. Some 180m north is a circular enclosure (50m diameter; NPRN 400285), originally thought to be a later prehistoric settlement (Driver 2005, 588) but with a very broad putative `entrance?? 15m wide ? and enlarged ditch terminals terminating in a large pit to the north. Again, this is not entirely standard for the regional Iron Age where one would expect a more narrow entrance. A series of barrows extend the Pyllau-isaf complex across the Afon Llanfihangel, the largest (NPRN 401960) being around 19m diameter.

Extract from Driver, T. 2008. Sacred monuments in a changing landscape: plough-levelled Neolithic and Bronze Age complexes along the North Ceredigion coastal valleys. In Rainbird, P. (ed.) Monuments in the Landscape, Stroud: Tempus, 54-65.