![Cwm Berwyn](webphotos/cwmberwyn.jpg)
CWM BERWYN
GRID REFERENCE: SN 696539
AREA IN HECTARES: 3177
Historic Background
This character area once lay within Cwmwd Penardd. A
large portion of it lay within the Bishop of St David’s Llanddewi
Breifi estate, with the remainder probably considered Crown land. Place-name
evidence - Llethr Hafodydd - suggests transhumance was practised in the
past. It straddles a trans-mountain route-way that provided communication
between Tregaron and lands to the west, with the upper Tywi valley and
the east. This was an important line of communication in the past, but
is now used mainly by tourists. Apart from the extreme southern tip, which
was partially enclosed prior to afforestation, the whole of this historic
landscape area comprised unenclosed moorland and sheep-walk. In the 1960s
the Forestry Commission afforested the whole area.
Description and essential historic landscape
components
This is a vast tract of hard-edged forestry lying across
former open land. It achieves a maximum height of over 480m, is on average
between 400-450m high, and runs down to approximately 300m at its southern
end. Apart from enclosures at the southern end, this area was entirely
unenclosed moorland prior to afforestation in the 1960s. The plantations,
tracks and other features of afforestation now form the major landscape
components of this area.
Recorded archaeology in this area is rich and varied.
Mostly it consists of abandoned cottages and farmsteads of post-Medieval
date, and other agricultural pre-afforestation features such as boundary
markers. However, a time-depth component is lent to the landscape by three
Bronze Age round barrows and two putative similar sites, a Bronze Age
standing stone, two possible stones of the same date, and a Roman marching
camp.
This area is clearly defined by the surrounding open
land.
![Cwm Berwyn map](webphotos/cwmberwynmap.jpg)
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 |