DisgrifiadFfridd Camen is a relict field system, defined by tumbled stone walls and banks, set on a mountain shelf above the steep valley sides of Cwm Pennant. It extends over an area of at least 350m north-south between two tributary stream valleys, and is generally 200m deep. The walls and banks divide the area up into east-west strips generally about 30m wide. In the upper part of the area are a number of smaller rectangular enclosures and at least one later HAFOD - a house or cottage associated with seasonal grazing. The field system may have extended further to the south where there is a second HAFOD.
It is thought that this field system represents an organised colonisation of the upland fringes in the medieval period and that it was abandoned when the climate deteriorated in the fourteenth century. The area then reverted to extensive grazing.
Similar field systems are found to the north and south above the eastern side of Cwm Pennant (see NPRN 308645).
Source: Silvester in Landscape History 22 (2000), 47-60
John Wiles 15.01.08
