1. Cadw SAM No.=BR053
2. An elongated enclosure, 135m by 44m, defined by scarped natural slopes on the SE, elsewhere by a bank, with a ditch and counterscarp at the SW end, and a further bank and ditch, c.32m distant, to the NE.
(source OS495 card; SO03NW3)

3. Description from 1986 Brecknock Inventory (HF 36). A small, bivallate fort stands in a commanding position on the summit of a ridge rising to 413 m above O.D., 2.5 km E.S.E. of Merthyr Cynog church. The ground beyond the defences falls away steeply in all directions especially onthe S.E. where there is a sharp drop between 15 m and 25 m deep. The site has been eroded severely by ploughing and is at present grazing land with sporadic bracken cover.

The elongated-oval plan is formed by natural defences on the S.E. and a single-curved rampart following the contours of the ridge on the other sides. The site measures internally 140 m N.E. to S.W. by 44 m, an area of 0.48 ha. The N.E. side is strengthened by an additional widely-spaced rampart and the S.W. end by a closely-spaced short length of bank. Most of the main rampart has been reduced to a Slngle outward-facing scarp up to 1.8 m high, but at the S.W. end it survives as a low bank about 5 m wide hy 1.2 m high externally. For a distance of 23 m on the N. the line of the rampart is interrupted by an expanse of bare rock which would have been cut away had the bank been constructed.

On the S.W. the site of the ditch is indicated by a lusher growth of grass at the toe of the rampart scarp, and further N. by a vague hollow. At the foot of the scarp around the N. is a shelf up to 3 m wide. Immediately outside the main rampart on the S.W. ls a bank 20 m long standing 2.3 m high above the shallow ditch in front of it. There is no sign that this r ampart was originally longer. The outer rampart on the N.E is separated by about 30 m from the inner. tt stands up to 1.8 m high above its fronting ditch w hich is 0.9 m deep. The N. arm of the rampart is an °utward-facing scarp tapering westwards into the n atural slope. The indications are that efforts to strengthen the original enclosure were curtailed before he works were completed. The ditches and the lower Parts of the rampart scarps are rock-cut and the main °dy of the banks constructed of earth and stone u bble. A quarry-ditch, 0.9 m deep, is visible behind he bank on the S.W., which suggests that much of n e material for the inner rampart may have been Stained from the interior. There are no discernible /aces of the denuded scarp claimed1 to stand 16 m l n front of the main bank and represent further works a round the N. side.

The only entrance seems to have been at the N.E. e n d through a gap between the outer rampart and the . §e of the natural scarp and through a gap in the } nner rampart a short distance from its N.E. termination. In the N.E. half of the interior a possible hut site is represented by a levelled platform about 5m across which has been damaged considerably by ploughing. Elsewhere there are several modern pits, one of which may have been a beacon.

Updated by Dr Toby Driver, RCAHMW, March 2025

Reference:

RCAHMW 1986. An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Brecknock (Brycheiniog). The Prehistoric and Roman Monuments. Part ii: Hill-forts ad Roman Remains. HMSO. pp 74-75