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Powys Sites
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Trecastle
Mountain Coming from Brecon on the A40 towards Llandovery turn left on a lane at Trecastle towards Cwmwysg. This is the last lane on the left in the village and is not signed. Go up past the small school and continue for about ¼ mile to take a right turn onto the Roman Road and park near a gate after 2 miles. Go through the gate and walk for about ¾ mile then look out for an old metal Ministry of Defence sign some way from the track on the right. Take the path here NW and it takes you to the circles. We saw the sign but ignored it and ended up at the Roman Camp.
The larger circle There are two circles here near to the site of two rectangular Roman camps. The ENE circle is the larger being 23m (76ft) across and in the centre is a mound. This is the better preserved of the two circles with 21 or more stones still standing and two outliers. Originally there may have been as many as 30 stones. The central mound within the circle is probably natural.
The smaller circle Just 30m to the WSW is a smaller circle that is just 7.2m (24ft) across, however the stones are larger but only five of the stones survive. |
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View to the circles in the NW from the fallen pillar 16m to the SW is a row of four small stones leading to the smaller circle and to the SE is a large fallen pillar about 150m away. Continuing westward for about 0.5km along the Roman road you will come to the remains of two Roman marching camps The banks of the forts can be clearly seen forming two rectangular enclosures. The earliest is about 425 metres by 358 metres, the later one is slightly smaller. Marching camps were built by the Roman army for temporary protection. The soldiers dug a ditch and used the waste to form a bank. There are the remains of two less well preserved Roman camps, and a later medieval motte, to the west. It was wet and misty when we were here so just imagine that the views would be good. The track was like a zoo with numerous sheep, cows (and bull) and horses all with their young. We found a handy campsite not far from the Nant Tarw site a couple of miles along the road behind the Cross Inn.
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Powys Sites
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June 2002 |
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