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Three Platform Houses on Cefn Brithdir is a medieval platform house settlement protected by Cadw under reference GM317. The site occupies the upper slopes of Cefn Brithdir in Wales, where the underlying bedrock of the South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation provides a foundation of mudstone, siltstone and sandstone laid down during the Westphalian period. This coal-bearing geology shaped the landscape and resources available to medieval inhabitants, though platform houses typically predate intensive mineral extraction in the region.
Platform houses represent a distinctive medieval building tradition of upland Wales, constructed on artificially levelled terraces cut into hillsides. The three examples at Cefn Brithdir demonstrate the settlement pattern of small-scale pastoral farming communities. Each platform would have supported a timber-framed or stone structure, with the terracing providing level building ground on steep terrain and improved drainage on the exposed moorland.
The site reflects medieval land use in the Welsh uplands, where dispersed homesteads rather than nucleated villages characterised settlement patterns. Dating typically to the 12th to 16th centuries, these structures belong to a period of established occupation and adaptation to upland conditions. The archaeological survival of the earthwork platforms at Cefn Brithdir offers evidence of domestic life, land management and the organization of medieval Welsh rural communities in this coal-bearing region.
Three Platform Houses on Cefn Brithdir is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference GM317. View the official record →
Three Platform Houses on Cefn Brithdir is a medieval platform house settlement protected by Cadw under reference GM317.
Three Platform Houses on Cefn Brithdir dates from the medieval period, and is classified as a platform house. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Three Platform Houses on Cefn Brithdir 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 GM317.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Capel Gwladys (3.8 km), Fforest Gwladys Roman practice camp (4 km), Rectangular Earthworks 530m SSW of Heol-Ddu-Uchaf (4 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Three Platform Houses on Cefn Brithdir'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.
Three Platform Houses on Cefn Brithdir 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.