TVAS North Midlands: Excavations at Lluest-y-Foel, Tan-Y-Foel Quarry, Cefn Coch, Welshpool, Powys

TVAS North Midlands: Excavations at Lluest-y-Foel, Tan-Y-Foel Quarry, Cefn Coch, Welshpool, Powys

Between April and May 2025, TVAS North Midlands conducted an excavation at Lluest-y-Foel, Tan-Y-Foel Quarry, Cefn Coch, Welshpool, Powys ahead of quarrying. The excavation consisted of two areas focusing on a pillow mound and a post-Medieval farmstead.

Pillow Mound

Pillow mounds are artificial warrens used to house rabbits that were farmed for their fur and meat during the medieval and post-Medieval period. The pillow mound at Y Foel is part of a group 54 on the slopes of Y Foel. An initial hand-dug trench was excavated across the mound revealing two side ditches, along the north-west and south-east of the mound respectively, and a small section of the burrows.

Once the hang-dug trench was fully recorded the remainder of the mound overburden was removed by machine to reveal the pattern of the burrows. The burrows to the north and the centre are artifical evident from their uniform nature and plan form. The burrows to the south that branched off from the central burrow were clearly made by rabbits based on their non-unifrom plan form.

Lluest-y-Foel Farmstead

Two distinct structures were exposed as well as an enclosure in the form of an earthen bank consolidated by stones and a ditch, and two gullies and a possible pit were also excavated.