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Offa's Dyke: Section from Granner Wood to Burfa is an early medieval linear earthwork constructed across the Welsh border landscape. Built in the late eighth century, the dyke represents one of the most ambitious engineering projects of Anglo-Saxon Britain. This section runs through terrain underlain by Wenlock rocks—mudstones, siltstones and sandstones deposited during the Silurian period—creating challenging ground conditions that the dyke's builders nonetheless traversed with considerable labour.
The earthwork consists of a substantial bank with an accompanying ditch, following the natural contours of the rolling borderland between Granner Wood and Burfa. The Wenlock bedrock, relatively stable despite its varied composition, provided a foundation for the dyke's construction, though the builders would have encountered patches of harder sandstone and softer mud that required different techniques to excavate and move.
The section is protected as an ancient monument under Cadw reference RD023, recognising its significance as part of the only surviving physical boundary between the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia and the Welsh kingdoms. Stretching over 240 kilometres in its entirety, Offa's Dyke remains one of Britain's most substantial pre-Conquest earthworks, and this length demonstrates the Mercian state's capacity for organised, sustained construction across difficult terrain.
Offa's Dyke: Section from Granner Wood to Burfa is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference RD023. View the official record →
Offa's Dyke: Section from Granner Wood to Burfa is an early medieval linear earthwork constructed across the Welsh border landscape. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference RD023.
Offa's Dyke: Section from Granner Wood to Burfa dates from the early medieval period, and is classified as a linear earthwork. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Offa's Dyke: Section from Granner Wood to Burfa is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Cadw — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Wales. The official designation reference is RD023.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Churchyard cross in St Mary the Virgin's churchyard (5.2 km), Castle Twts (6.2 km), Lyonshall Castle (7.7 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Offa's Dyke: Section from Granner Wood to Burfa's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Offa's Dyke: Section from Granner Wood to Burfa stands on Wenlock Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Wenlock. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.