NAR SH48NE9

A burnt mound set close by a minor tributary of the Lligwy river was excavated in 1912/13. Two similar mounds are found some 230m downstream (NPRN 302874).
This is a crescentic or horseshoe shaped mound about 17m in diameter and up to 0.4m high, open towards the stream on the south-east. It is largely made up of friable burnt stones.
Such mounds are a product of using heated stones for boiling (food), textile processing, saunas or bathing. The discarded stones or pot boilers, were piled up in banks away from the water source. The classic crescentic mounds are usually found to be Bronze Age, although burnt stone technology and the resulting burnt mounds, persisted throughout and beyond the Roman period.
Excavation revealed a slighly sunken rectangular floor about 2.9m by 1.3m, aligned towards the stream, with three upright stones about its edges. Its north-west end was paved and the remainder was floored with broken stones embedded in the natural clay. This was interpreted at the time as a hearth, but is probably the emplacement for a water trough or tank. There were no dateable finds.

Source: Baynes in Archaeologia Cambrensis 6th series 8 (1913), 201-214
RCAHM Anglesey Inventory (1937), 137

John Wiles 12.09.07