Powys Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. Geog ...

is the largest administrative county in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. With over a quarter of Wales's land area, covering much of the eastern half of the country, it is a county of remote uplands, low population and no coastline. It was created in more or less its current form in 1974, and is the only one of the large county units created at that time to have been carried forward intact at the 1996 local government re-organisation. It comprises three historic counties, namely

Montgomeryshire , HQ= Montgomery , Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996) , Origin= , Status= , Start= , End= ...

, Radnorshire, and most of Brecknockshire. There are 950

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

s within the county. This is far more than can be sensibly covered in one list, so each of the 3 historic counties is therefore listed separately, and each of these has two lists - one for the prehistoric sites and one for the Roman, medieval and post-medieval sites.

Statistics

The statistics below show the total number of sites ascribed to each period, and the breakdown for the six lists of scheduled monuments in Powys. The allocation to one or another period is not always certain, particularly between the prehistoric periods, and many sites will have remains from more than one period, so the statistics below give a general guide only.

Statutory protection

Scheduled monuments have statutory protection. It is illegal to disturb the ground surface or any standing remains. The compilation of the list is undertaken by Cadw Welsh Historic Monuments, which is an executive agency of the National Assembly of Wales. The lists above derive from the schedules supplied by Cadw and include additional material from

RCAHMW The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW; cy, Comisiwn Brenhinol Henebion Cymru; ), established in 1908, is a Welsh Government sponsored body concerned with some aspects of the archaeological, architectura ...

and

Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust The Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust (CPAT) ( cy, Ymddiriedolaeth Archeolegol Clwyd-Powys (YACP)) is an educational charity which was established in 1975. Its objective is ‘to advance the education of the public in archaeology’. CPAT is one of ...

. The sites that are scheduled represent the most important or interesting examples of the various classes of archaeological sites. For example, a 2012 study identified 1,130 prehistoric burial mounds within Powys, of varying styles and ages, dating from 4000BC to 1000BC, most of them belonging to the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

.Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust: Introducing Prehistoric burial and ritual sites.
Accessed 6 April 2014 Of these, 339 are

s, included on the lists above. Standing stones and other ritual stones, most again dating to the Bronze Age, also occur in large numbers, 276 being found across the county, of which 92 are scheduled.

References

{{Scheduled monuments in Wales

Scheduled monuments in Powys