Esgair Perfedd is a Roman temporary (marching) camp situated on high moorland in the Cambrian Mountains of mid-Wales, north-east of Rhayader at around 450 m above sea level. Enclosing approximately 6.2 ha, it is large enough to have accommodated a substantial vexillation — perhaps in the region of a legionary force on campaign — and is most plausibly dated to the Flavian conquest of Wales under Frontinus or Agricola (c. AD 74–78), though a later date in the 2nd century cannot be excluded.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The camp lies in the upland interior between the auxiliary forts at Castell Collen (Llandrindod) and the western coastal zone, and forms part of the network of temporary works that mark Roman military movement across the Welsh massif during the suppression of the Silures and Ordovices. Its size makes it one of the larger known marching camps in central Wales, indicating that a sizeable force operated through this otherwise sparsely Romanised upland.
The site is known principally from aerial photography and earthwork survey, which have traced the playing-card circuit of the rampart and ditch along with traces of tituli or claviculae at the gateways; it has not been the subject of significant modern excavation, so no datable artefactual assemblage is recorded and its chronology rests on morphological comparison with other Welsh temporary camps.
Esgair Perfedd is a Roman temporary (marching) camp situated on high moorland in the Cambrian Mountains of mid-Wales, north-east of Rhayader at around 450 m above sea level. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a military camp site from the Roman period in Britain.
Esgair Perfedd marching camp is classified as a Roman military camp — a military site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Cae Gaer Roman fort (15.2 km), Castell Collen (15.4 km), Caerau (19.8 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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