Banc y Celyn, Brecknockshire - Royal Commission on the Ancient ...

Uplands Initiative – <strong>Banc</strong> y <strong>Celyn</strong> 20084. ConclusionsThe <strong>Banc</strong> y <strong>Celyn</strong> study area is a rather untypical upland survey block, as its boundariesdefine a long, sinuous area between the eastern edge of Mynydd Epynt and the B4520 road.It extends eastwards along several narrow ridges, interspersed by enclosed farmland whichruns up onto the mountain fringe from the cultivated Wye Valley. With the modern roadforming its western edge, running parallel to an earlier road connecting Brecon and BuilthWells, the land included is in no way remote or inaccessible. Access into the area is enhancedby numerous trackways, including an old droving route, as well as many minor tracksconnecting the farms and villages to the east with the mountain pastures. This ease of accessundoubtedly explains the wide range of modern and post medieval features across the studyarea. This includes evidence of modern clearance and land improvement, as well asconsiderable evidence of attempts to enclose, drain, cultivate and even settle the common duringlate post medieval times. The area has not been greatly affected by industrial activity, withsmall-scale quarrying, and possible peat or turf cutting, being carried out purely to supply localneed. Only along Cefn Llwydallt, in the southeast corner of the study area, is there aconcentration of quarry workings. Even here the quarries are relatively minor features in thelandscape.Underlying the plethora of features associated with modern and late post medieval activity arethe less easily discerned traces of medieval and early post medieval activity. The mostobvious monuments associated with these periods are the earthwork remains of numerousplatforms and huts in the northern portion of the study area, around Pant y Llyn Hill. Most ofthese appear to have been associated with pastoral farming and the use of the upland forsummer pasture. There are several settlements which appear to be associated with enclosureand cultivation, such as two platforms at Waun Hirwaun which sit in a landscape of ridge andfurrow cultivation, with which they are thought to be contemporary. It may well be that suchsites represent early post medieval encroachment onto the commons. The project succeededin significantly increasing the number of settlement sites recorded. It was noted that there is ageneral absence of settlement evidence from the middle and southern parts of the study area.There is also good evidence for prehistoric activity within the study area, chiefly in the formof Bronze Age cairns. However, the Bailey Bach Chambered Tomb is a rare example of aNeolithic funerary monument in the Powys uplands. Several cairns were previously known,but the project has succeeded in increasing the number significantly. Interestingly, the cairnsare found away from the highest ground in the north of the study area, and are concentratedaround the exposed ridges in the south. There is an important cairn group at Twyn y Post, anda very well-preserved cairn on Cefn Clawdd, and these examples must at one time have beenhighly visible in the landscape. The remaining cairns sit on less exposed positions on theflanks of these ridges, with several newly recorded cairns being found much lower down onthe spurs of Cefn Gledwen and Nantyroffeiriad. A single prehistoric site is recorded at thehigher, northern end of the study area, namely the <strong>Banc</strong> y <strong>Celyn</strong> Stone Circle, where only twoupright stones can be seen, but it is considered to be a rare example of a new class of ritualstone setting identified recently by the regional archaeological trust (Jones, 2008, pp.25-32).In conclusion, the <strong>Banc</strong> y <strong>Celyn</strong> study area includes a range of monument types that conformsto those found in adjacent upland areas. This includes good examples of prehistoric funerary72