Bryn Rhydd Enclosure

Has been described as a Rejected Timber Castle (Ringwork)

There are earthwork remains

NameBryn Rhydd Enclosure
Alternative NamesBrynrhydd; Bryn yr Hydd Common
Historic CountryRadnorshire
Modern AuthorityPowys
1974 AuthorityPowys
CommunityGlasbury

Apparently incomplete enclosure about 140m NNW_SSE by 100m wide (estimated from OS, 1964) defined by bank rising 0.5m above interior with external ditch falling 1.7m from it's crest. sited on S facing slope. prob a hillfort though also noted as poss ringwork. overlain in part by PAR 414 which is prob a later field system though the whole formerly described by Savory, H N, 1954 as being three overlapping contiguous enclosures.

Bryn Rhydd measures just over 140m on its north-north-east to south-south-west axis and is about 95m on its other axis. The bank and ditch vary in their size but where measured by the Ordnance

Survey in 1973, the bank had internal and external measurements of 0.5m and 1.7m respectively. A modern track passes through a wide gap in the earthworks on the west side. This is now too wide to have been an original entrance but the original entrance may have been here. However, the hollowed approach shown on the Ordnance Survey plan is not particularly convincing.

What is clearly apparent is that the defences do not form a complete circuit but fade out on the east side, both terminals gradually diminishing rather than stopping abruptly. On this basis the logical explanation is that the enclosure is unfinished. If there are any contemporary internal features, it would be almost impossible to detect them under the vegetation (Defended Enclosures in Radnorshire Project, CPAT, 2006). (CPAT)

An irregular enclosure, c.120m by 74m, defined by a bank and ditch except to the SE, where the ground falls away. The site is apparently complicated by the remains of a later field system. (Coflein)

Not scheduled

Not Listed

The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSO186413
Latitude52.0652084350586
Longitude-3.18839001655579
Eastings318640
Northings241380
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • RCAHMW, 1913, An inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Radnorshire (HMSO) p. 114 no. 464 online copy

Journals

  • Savory, H.N., 1954, Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies Vol. 15 p. 74, 307