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Platform Houses and Cairn Cemetery on Dinas Noddfa is a medieval cairnfield located in Wales, protected by Cadw under reference GM314. The site comprises terrace platforms cut into the hillside, upon which domestic structures were built, alongside a cemetery defined by scattered cairns. These platform houses represent a settlement strategy well-suited to upland terrain, with levelled areas providing stable ground for timber or stone buildings in difficult topography.
The monument sits on bedrock of the South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, a Westphalian-age sequence of mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete. This geology shaped both the landscape and the settlement's character. The ironstone deposits and ferricrete horizons within the bedrock would have been evident in the local soils and stone sources available to medieval inhabitants, influencing their construction materials and the visual appearance of their structures.
The juxtaposition of domestic platforms and burial cairns within a single site indicates an organised medieval community with defined areas for the living and the dead. Such upland cairnfields are characteristic of medieval pastoral settlement in Wales, where seasonal or permanent occupation of high ground complemented lowland farming economies. The site's protected status recognises its importance for understanding medieval Welsh settlement patterns and land use.
Platform Houses and Cairn Cemetery on Dinas Noddfa is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference GM314. View the official record →
Platform Houses and Cairn Cemetery on Dinas Noddfa is a medieval cairnfield located in Wales, protected by Cadw under reference GM314.
Platform Houses and Cairn Cemetery on Dinas Noddfa dates from the medieval period, and is classified as a cairnfield. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Platform Houses and Cairn Cemetery on Dinas Noddfa 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 GM314.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Coed Cae Round Cairns (3.5 km), Tir Lan round barrow cemetery (4 km), Capel Gwladys (4.9 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Platform Houses and Cairn Cemetery on Dinas Noddfa'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.
Platform Houses and Cairn Cemetery on Dinas Noddfa stands on South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.