Spring 2011 issue - Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust

On Denbigh Moors . . .Just published! This well-illustrated, bilingual volume about the Denbigh Moors — MynyddHiraethog — has just been published by the Royal Commission on the Ancient andHistorical Monuments of Wales in collaboration with the Trust and written byBob Silvester, the Trust’s Deputy Director. Based on theCommission’s Uplands Survey Initiative, thevolume tells the history of this distinctiveupland area south of Denbigh.Despite its often harsh and challenginglandscape the moors have been exploitedby people over many millennia. The storytakes in Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, BronzeAge chieftains, Iron Age, medieval andpost-medieval farmers, as well as more recentpressures posed by 20th- and 21st-centuryreservoirs, conifer plantations and windfarms.The book recently published by theRoyal Commission in the DiscoveringUpland Heritage series. See theCommission’s website for furtherdetails (www. rcahmw.gov.uk)Above The 20th-century AlwenReservoir, snaking its way across themoor. Mesolithic stone implementshave been found below some of themoor’s reservoirs during periodsof low water. Left Reconstructiondrawing of the post-medieval summerhouses at Hafod y Nant Criafolenexcavated in the 1970s in advanceof the construction of the BrenigReservoir by the Rescue ArchaeologyGroup — the forerunner of the Trust.The illustration is from the originalpublication in the Post-MedievalArchaeology journal.4 5Above left In the foreground is the enclosureknown as Hen Ddinbych (‘Old Denbigh’)which seems likely to have been the focus ofa sheep farm forming part of the estate ofthe medieval bishops of Bangor. Towardsthe middle right of the image is just visiblethe Brenig platform cairn with Llyn Brenigreservoir beyond The Bronze Age platformcairn was excavated in the 1970s as part of therescue campaign organised by Frances Lynch,The Trust’s current chairman, in advance ofthe construction of the reservoir. Below leftOne of the smaller Bronze Age cairns thatwere examined in the 1970s. This one wasfound to cover a cremation burial placed in acentral stone-lined cist.