Powys is the largest administrative county in Wales. With over a quarter of Wales's land area, covering much of the eastern half of the country, it is a county of remote uplands, low population and no coastline. It was created in more or less its current form in 1974, and is the only one of the large county units created at that time to have been carried forward intact at the 1996 local government re-organisation. It comprises three historic counties, namely Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire, and most of Brecknockshire. There are 950 scheduled monuments within the county. This is far more than can be sensibly covered in one list, so each of the 3 historic counties is therefore listed separately, and each of these has two lists - one for the prehistoric sites and one for the Roman, medieval and post-medieval sites.
The statistics below show the total number of sites ascribed to each period, and the breakdown for the six lists of scheduled monuments in Powys. The allocation to one or another period is not always certain, particularly between the prehistoric periods, and many sites will have remains from more than one period, so the statistics below give a general guide only.
Prehistoric | Roman to Modern | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lists | Neolithic | Bronze Age | Iron Age | Roman | Early Medieval | Medieval | Post- Medieval | Total |
Prehistoric Montgomeryshire | 2 | 116 | 21 | 139 | ||||
Roman to modern Montgomeryshire | 14 | 14 | 82 | 9 | 119 | |||
Prehistoric Radnorshire | 1 | 117 | 72 | 190 | ||||
Roman to modern Radnorshire | 16 | 25 | 62 | 9 | 112 | |||
Prehistoric Brecknockshire | 12 | 190 | 52 | 254 | ||||
Roman to modern Brecknockshire | 10 | 9 | 78 | 39 | 136 | |||
Totals | 15 | 423 | 145 | 40 | 48 | 222 | 57 | 950 |
Scheduled monuments have statutory protection. It is illegal to disturb the ground surface or any standing remains. The compilation of the list is undertaken by Cadw Welsh Historic Monuments, which is an executive agency of the National Assembly of Wales. [1] The lists above derive from the schedules supplied by Cadw [2] and include additional material from RCAHMW and Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust.
The sites that are scheduled represent the most important or interesting examples of the various classes of archaeological sites. For example, a 2012 study identified 1,130 prehistoric burial mounds within Powys, of varying styles and ages, dating from 4000BC to 1000BC, most of them belonging to the Bronze Age. [3] Of these, 339 are scheduled monuments, included on the lists above. Standing stones and other ritual stones, most again dating to the Bronze Age, also occur in large numbers, 276 being found across the county, of which 92 are scheduled.
Powys is a county and preserved county in Wales. It borders Gwynedd, Denbighshire, and Wrexham to the north; the English ceremonial counties of Shropshire and Herefordshire to the east; Monmouthshire, Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Rhondda Cynon Taf, and Neath Port Talbot to the south; and Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion to the west. The largest settlement is Newtown, and the administrative centre is Llandrindod Wells.
The Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust is an educational charity which was established in 1975. Its objective is ‘to advance the education of the public in archaeology’. CPAT is one of four Welsh Archaeological Trusts (WATs) which work to help protect, record and interpret all aspects of the historic environment. This includes providing advice to local authorities on archaeology and planning, undertaking archaeological projects for private- and public-sector clients, and delivering a programme of community archaeology events and activities.
Parc Cwm long cairn, also known as Parc le Breos burial chamber, is a partly restored Neolithic chambered tomb, identified in 1937 as a Severn-Cotswold type of chambered long barrow. The cromlech, a megalithic burial chamber, was built around 5850 years before present (BP), during the early Neolithic. It is about seven 1⁄2 miles (12 km) west south–west of Swansea, Wales, in what is now known as Coed y Parc Cwm at Parc le Breos, on the Gower Peninsula.
Moel y Gaer is an Iron Age hillfort at the northern end of the Clwydian Range, located on a summit overlooking the valley of the River Wheeler, near the village of Bodfari, Denbighshire, Wales, five miles north-east of Denbigh. The site is a scheduled monument, classified as a prehistoric defensive hillfort.
Moel y Gaer is an Iron Age hillfort on a summit of Llantysilio Mountain, northwest of the town of Llangollen, Denbighshire, Wales. The site is a scheduled monument classified as a prehistoric defensive hillfort.
Scheduled monuments are sites of archaeological importance with specific legal protection against damage or development.
Carmarthenshire is a large rural county in West Wales. It includes a mix of upland and mountainous terrain and fertile farmland. The western end of the Brecon Beacons National Park lies within the county. Across Carmarthenshire there are a total of 370 scheduled monuments. That is too many to have on a single list page, so for convenience, the list is divided into the 227 prehistoric sites and the 143 Roman, Medieval and Post Medieval sites.
Ceredigion is a large rural county in West Wales. It has a long coastline of Cardigan Bay to the west and the remote moorland of the Cambrian Mountains in the east, with the mountainous terrain of Plynlimon in the northeast. Ceredigion has a total of 264 scheduled monuments. That is too many to have on a single list page, so for convenience the list is divided into two, 163 prehistoric sites and 101 Roman, Medieval and Post Medieval sites.
Gwynedd is a large rural county in North Wales. The northern half includes the high mountains of Snowdonia and the mixed farmland and hills of the Llŷn peninsula, which between them make up much of the former county of Caernarfonshire. The southern part of Gwynedd is the softer coastal and upland landscapes of the former county of Merionethshire. Gwynedd, the second-largest county in Wales, has a total of 497 scheduled monuments. That is too many to have on a single list article, so for convenience the list is divided into three. The 365 prehistoric sites are in two lists, covering 171 sites in former Merionethshire, and 194 sites in former Caernarvonshire. The 132 sites dating from Roman to modern times are included in a single list covering the whole of the county. Gwynedd is a unitary authority comprising most of the two historic counties. In 1974 it also merged with Anglesey, and the merged county was also called Gwynedd. Since 1996 Anglesey has been a separate county again.
Pembrokeshire is the fifth-largest county in Wales, but has more scheduled monuments (526) than any except Powys. This gives it an extremely high density of monuments, with 33.4 per 100 km2.. With three-quarters of its boundary being coastline, Pembrokeshire occupies the western end of the West Wales peninsular, terminating with the tiny cathedral city of St David's. It was a historic county in its own right but between 1975 and 1996 it joined Carmarthen and Ceredigion in the much larger county of Dyfed.
Craig Rhiwarth is a mountain in the Berwyn range, in Powys, Wales, overlooking the village of Llangynog to the south. On the summit is an Iron Age hillfort, and there are remains of slate quarrying on the southern slopes.
The archaeology of Wales is the study of human occupation within the country of Wales which has been occupied by modern humans since 225,000 BCE, with continuous occupation from 9,000 BCE. Analysis of the sites, artefacts and other archaeological data within Wales details its complex social landscape and evolution from Prehistoric times to the Industrial period. This study is undertaken by academic institutions, consultancies, charities as well as government organisations.