Lost farmsteads

Paul Sambrook's map of a mysterious structure at Waun Maes, on the boggy moorland south of Waun Mawn.  It was probably a sheepfold, but are there signs of dwellings and other features nearby?

Came across this very interesting publication: "Lost farmsteads: deserted rural settlements in Wales" (ed. Kathryn Roberts), 2006, CBA Research Report 148, 326 pp.

It's nicely laid out and well illustrated, and of particular interest to Pembrokeshire is Chapter 5, by Paul Sambrook, entitled "Deserted rural settlements in south-west Wales."

 https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-281-1/dissemination/pdf/RR148.pdf

Paul made a special study of the Preseli uplands  -- and he describes and classifies several cottage / farmstead types, including shepherds' cottages, hafod or summer settlements, and hovels built and used by vagrants or seasonal workers.  The ones that are difficult to classify or identify are of course the "ty unnos" cottages built illegally and overnight to start with, and then improved and made respectable later on.......

In Martha's story there are a number of episodes involving the building of cottages on the edge of the common and the bitter disputes involving landless peasants and the powerful gentry who sometimes evicted poor people from the common and then illegally enclosed chunks of it themselves........

The terms "hafod", "lluest" and "tyddyn" are often used for these ruined old buildings out in the middle of nowhere.......