Parc le Breos

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Coordinates: 51°35′18″N 4°6′45″W / 51.58833°N 4.11250°W / 51.58833; -4.11250
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the medieval deer park on the Gower peninsula. For the early Neolithic cromlech, see Parc Cwm long cairn.

Cairn in the distance in sunshine, with trees in leaf to its left, right and rear. To its front lies flat ground of short grass. An asphalt path leads from the left past the cromlech. The shaded foreground has a kissing gate, a wooden fence and a Forestry Commission welcome sign in Welsh (first) and English.
Parc le Breos Cwm
from the entrance of Coed y Parc

Parc le Breos was a great

domestic is unknown.[2]

The park's boundary was originally marked by a wooden fence, or pale, on the top of an earth bank inside a ditch. Some parts of the pale survive.[3]

Prehistoric finds and an Iron Age enclosure (above Parkmill
) show the area of Parc le Breos to have been settled by modern humans since the earliest times.

History

Limestone outcrop with triagular fissure (widest at the bottom, narrowing to the top). Foliage obscures the stone at either side, away from the cave entrance. Leafless trees stand at the top of the gorge. Foliage is outside the cave, in the foreground,
The Cathole Cave

The area that would become Parc le Breos has been inhabited by modern humans since the earliest times.

Late glacial tool finds from the Upper Palaeolithic date to c. 12,000 BP. Animal remains were found at the same level as the Upper Palaeolithic tools, providing evidence of the climate c. 12,000 BP: red fox; Arctic fox; brown bear; tundra vole; and possibly reindeer.[7] Animal remains excavated at the cave during the nineteenth century include mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, red deer and giant deer, which are yet to be accurately dated.[8] Several finds date to the Bronze Age: a bronze socketed axe; two human skeletons; and sherds of pottery, from burial urns and other vessels.[6]

Workmen digging for road stone in 1869 uncovered an early Neolithic

chambered tomb, the cromlech was partly restored following an excavation during 1960–1961.[8][10][11] North-West European lifestyles changed around 6,000 BP, from the nomadic lives of the hunter-gatherer, to a settled life of agricultural farming – the Neolithic Revolution. However, analysis of the human remains found at the cromlech show the tomb to have been accessed for up to 800 years and that the people interred within it continued to be either hunter-gatherers or herders, rather than agricultural farmers.[8][12]

A short dry-stone wall retains boulders to form a cairn. The wall is missing at the front, right section, where the rubble has tumbled out, leaving a (previously covered) orthostat exposed. The wall forms a courtyard at the tumulus' entrance. Flat ground of short grass surrounds the cairn. The background is of shaded trees, mainly in leaf.
Parc Cwm long cairn forecourt – from the south east

A trapezoidal cairn of rubble – the upper part of the cromlech and its earth covering now removed – about 72 feet (22 m) long by 43 feet (13 m) (at its widest), is revetted by a low dry-stone wall. A bell-shaped, south-facing forecourt, formed by the wall, leads to a central passageway lined with limestone slabs set on end. Human remains had been placed in the two pairs of stone chambers that lead from the passageway. Corpses may have been placed in nearby caves until they decomposed, when the bones were moved to the tomb.[8][12][13]

The

Llethryd Tooth Cave, or Tooth Hole cave, is an Early Bronze Age ossuary site in a limestone cave, about 1,500 yards (1.4 km) north, northwest of the Parc Cwm long cairn cromlech, on private land along the Parc le Breos Cwm valley, near the village of Llethryd. The cave was rediscovered by cavers in 1961, who found human bones. The excavation carried out by D.P. Webley & J. Harvey in 1962 revealed the disarticulated remains (i.e. incomplete skeletons) of six adults and two children, dated to the Early Bronze Age or Beaker culture. Other contemporary finds, now held at the Amgueddfa Cymru–National Museum Wales, Cardiff, include collared urn pottery, flaked knives, a scraper, flint flakes, a bone spatula, a needle and bead, and animal bones – the remains of domesticated animals, including cat and dog. Archaeologists Alasdair Whittle and Michael Wysocki note that this period of occupation may be "significant", with respect to Parc Cwm long cairn, as it is "broadly contemporary with the secondary use of the tomb".[11][14][15][16]

The

Llywelyn ap Iorwerth.[19] Before becoming a park, the area of Parc le Breos had been woodland. Its harvesting was implied on medieval rolls.[20]

The

Hundred of Swansea.[21]

A Hunting Lodge was built in the 19th century, about 1,200 yards (1,100 m) north east of Parc Cwm long cairn. It is now an hotel and pony trekking (horse riding) centre and retains the name Parc le Breos.[2][22]

Lunnon

The eastern half of Parc le Breos became a

grange
is noted on an account roll for 1337–8; as 'Grangia de Lunan'. – in which the village of Lunnon would be built.[2][3][23]

During the mid 16th century the remainder of the park changed use too, from a deer park to farmland, when all but the limestone gorge cwm and about 500 acres of woodland was divided into three farms.[2]

Location

Further information: Gower Peninsula and Parkmill

The remaining parkland of Parc le Breos is in Coed y Parc, about seven 1⁄2 miles (12 km) west south west of

Llanrhidian and Bishopston (Llandeilo Ferwallt). Its nearest village is Parkmill, a small rural settlement about one-mile (1.6 km) to the south east.[5][6]

Coed y Parc is owned and managed by

Welsh Assembly Government's historic environment division.[24][25]

Bibliography

Leighton, David K. 'A fresh look at Parc le Breos', Gower, 50 (1999), pp. 71–79, Publisher: Gower Society,

ISSN 0962-0540
. [26]

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6
    .
  2. ^ a b c d "Parc le Breos, medieval deer-park (300001)". Coflein. RCAHMW. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Gower065 Lunnon". Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust website. Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust. 2008. Retrieved 2 December 2008.
  4. ^ "Cathole Cave, Gower, Stone Age shelter". Casglu'r Tlysau—Gathering the Jewels—The website for Welsh Cultural History. Culturenet Cymru. 2008. Retrieved 4 November 2008.
  5. ^ a b "Archaeologia Cambrensis: a record of the antiquities of Wales and its Marches and the journal of the Cambrian Archaeological Association". Google Books. London: Cambrian Archaeological Association. 1886. p. 344. Retrieved 24 August 2009.
  6. ^ a b c d "Cat Hole Cave, Parkmill (305612)". Coflein. RCAHMW. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  7. ISBN 0-7524-1983-8
    .
  8. ^ a b c d "Parc le Breos burial chamber; Parc Cwm long cairn (93072)". Coflein. RCAHMW. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  9. ISSN 0079-497X
    . Retrieved 7 July 2010.
  10. BBC Cymru Wales
    . 2009. Retrieved 11 September 2009.
  11. ^ a b "Key Sites Southeast Wales – Neolithic and earlier Bronze Age" (PDF). Research Framework for the Archaeology of Wales website. Research Framework for the Archaeology of Wales. 22 December 2003. Retrieved 4 November 2008.
  12. ^
    ISBN 0-7524-1983-8
    .
  13. ^ a b "Gower064 Parc le Breos". Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust website. Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust. 2008. Retrieved 11 September 2009.
  14. ^ "Tooth Cave (305613)". Coflein. RCAHMW. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  15. ISSN 0079-497X
    . Retrieved 25 September 2010.
  16. ^ "Bibliography of Cave Sites Literature". Chamberlain, A.T. & Williams, J.P. 2000 A Gazetteer of Welsh Caves, Fissures and Rock Shelters Containing Human Remains. Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield. 5 December 2000. Archived from the original on 4 May 2006. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  17. ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6
    .
  18. ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6
    .
  19. ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6
    .
  20. ^ "Parc le Breos, managed woodland (303001)". Coflein. RCAHMW. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  21. ISBN 0-14-014581-8
    .
  22. ^ "Parc-le-Breos". Parc-le-Breos website. Parc-le-Breos. 2008. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved 6 November 2008.
  23. ^ "Lunnon, site of medieval manorial farm or grange (302003)". Coflein. RCAHMW. Retrieved 12 September 2008.
  24. ^ "About Cadw". Cadw website. Cadw, a division of the Welsh Assembly Government. 2008. Archived from the original on 31 July 2008. Retrieved 11 August 2008.
  25. ^ "Places to visit: Parc le Breos Burial Chamber". Cadw website. Cadw, a division of the Welsh Assembly Government. 2008. Retrieved 24 October 2008.
  26. ISSN 0962-0540
    .

External links

51°35′18″N 4°6′45″W / 51.58833°N 4.11250°W / 51.58833; -4.11250

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