![](../../shim.gif) |
CARNINGLI
![CARNINGLI](images/carningli1.jpg)
GRID REFERENCE: SN 050373
AREA IN HECTARES: 499
Historic Background
This relatively large area of modern Pembrokeshire comprises
the upland moorland of Mynydd Carningli south of Newport town. It lies
within the medieval Cantref Cemaes. Cemaes was brought under Anglo-Norman
control in c.1100 by the Fitzmartins who retained it, as the Barony of
Cemaes, until 1326, when they were succeeded by the Audleys. The Barony
was coterminous with the later Hundred of Cemais, which was created in
1536, but many feudal rights and obligations persisted, some until as
late as 1922. This character area is a typical Welsh upland landscape
in that it contains extensive evidence of prehistoric occupation, mainly
ritual and funerary monuments but also occupation sites such as hillforts
and hut groups, and their associated field systems. Carningli hillfort
is a large enclosure and presumably represented the major population centre
of the region, but its drystone banks are not typical of iron age enclosures
and a neolithic date and a early medieval date have both been suggested
for its construction. The Bedd Morris standing stone was incorporated
in the later boundary of the parish (and borough) of Newport, and also
formed a route node for the medieval Newport-Haverfordwest highway, or
‘Ffordd Bedd Morris’, which still crosses Mynydd Carningli.
In the medieval period Mynydd Carningli lay within the borough of Newport,
which was more-or-less coterminous with Newport parish. Mynydd Carningli
was held directly by the Lords of Cemaes, but in 1278 Nicholas Fitzmartin
issued a charter, specifying the borough boundaries and granting the burgesses
right of common grazing over ‘all my land wet and dry, moors and
turbaries’on Mynydd Carningli. The charter defined this as a large
area lying between the arable land along the Clydach, the arable holding
of Dolranog (Gochel Sythi character area), Mynydd Melyn, the highway,
the holding of Parc-y-marriage, and Cwm Rhigian. Mynydd Carningli was
still recorded as unenclosed land over which the burgesses of the borough
had right of common pasture for ‘all manner of cattle’, in
the late 16th century Extent of Cemaes. It appears that, during the medieval
period, the unenclosed land of Mynydd Carningli extended down the northern
slopes as far as the town of Newport, and that the belt of enclosure that
now lies between the two is entirely post-medieval in origin. It results
partly from squatter enclosure (see Y Garn Parke character area), but
right of common pasture had ceased by the early 19th century. The northern
part of Mynydd Carningli includes several rectilinear enclosures belonging
to short-lived post-medieval farmsteads, probably mainly late in origin,
but abandoned by the mid 19th century. Old quarries within the area are
reminders that stone extraction was once a small but significant industry
in north Pembrokeshire.
![CARNINGLI](images/carningli2.jpg)
Description and essential historic landscape
components
Mynydd Carningli consists of a steep sided hill topped
by craggy rock outcrops that rises to over 330m above the town of Newport
to the north and the Gwaun valley to the south. Situated at the eastern
end of the hill, the massive rocky mass of Carningli hillfort is a dominant
landscape feature, visible from much of north Pembrokeshire. Essentially
this is an unenclosed historic landscape area consisting of heather and
bracken moorland with pockets of rough pasture. There are, however, old
stone-faced boundary banks and broken down field walls running across
the lower parts of this common, and on the fringes old fields are reverting
to moorland blurring the distinction between moor and lower-lying farmland.
These and a large stone-faced bank that runs alongside the public road
over the common demonstrate past attempts to bring the moorland under
cultivation. There are no buildings on the common, but the numerous prehistoric
and later archaeological sites – over 50 are recorded - strongly
characterise the historic landscape. These include: the massive hillfort
of Carningli and many ancillary settlements; Carn Ffoi iron age hillfort;
several round huts, some associated with field systems and agricultural
clearance cairns; bronze age burial mounds or round barrows; Bedd Morris
standing stone; and deserted settlements of medieval or later date. There
are also several old quarries, including an extensive one with and incline
leading from it on the eastern flank of the mountain.
Although Carningli is a distinctive historic landscape
character area, its boundaries are not all well defined. On the eastern
side the steep slope of common terminates abruptly against boundary banks
and hedges of farmland. Elsewhere the border between the common and farmland
is becoming blurred as fields are allowed to revert to moor and boundaries
are neglected.
Sources: Bignall 1991; Cadw 2001; Hogg 1973; Howells
1977; Lewis 1833; Miles 1995; Newport Parish tithe map 1844; Rees 1932
Base map reproduced from the OS map with the permission
of Ordnance Survey on behalf of The Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery
Office, © Crown Copyright 2001.
All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright
and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Licence Number: GD272221 |