The relict field system at Cefn Penagored, above Cwm Pennant, is defined by tumbled stone walls and banks set on a mountain shelf above the steep valley sides of Cwm Pennant. It extends over an area of at least 1.0km north-south between two tributary stream valleys, and is generally 500m deep. The walls and banks divide the area up into east-west strips generally about 20m wide. There are numerous clearance cairns and some patches of plough marks. Building platforms cluster about the Nant Esgeiriau valley at the south end of the area and there is a later hafodty (a house or cottage associated with seasonal grazing) towards the centre.

It is thought that this field system represents an organised colonisation of the upland fringes in the medieval period and that it was abandoned when the climate deteriorated in the fourteenth century. The area then reverted to extensive grazing. Similar field systems are found elsewhere above the east side of Cwm Pennant (see NPRN 308645).

Source: Silvester in Landscape History 22 (2000), 47-60

John Wiles, RCAHMW, 15 January 2008