Craig-y-Ddinas (Pontneddfechan) Promontory Fort View all content for Craig-y-Ddinas (Pontneddfechan)

'Visited' 30.10.10 What a lovely place to come for a picnic / walk in the summer! From the village of Pontneddfechan the forestry commission site is clearly sign posted. There is a large free car park and the first thing that strikes you is the huge, flat, near vertical rock face which had a couple of climbing ropes dangling down it. There is an information board and map of the walks available from the car park. The info board states Craig -Y –Ddinas means 'Fortress of the Rock' and seeing the afore mentioned rock face you can easily see how the place got its name! Strangely enough there is no mention of a Hillfort and it is not marked on the otherwise fairly detailed map. There are several paths to follow and I decided on the one which leads to the nearest waterfall and is an easy 400 metre walk along the river bank (wheelchair friendly). I passed a small cave entrance on the left, below the sheer cliff face and the gently flowing river was on my right. When the path ends you are close to a small waterfall. Very pretty. A group of 'gorge walkers' had just taken the plunge into the icy water! As for access to the Hillfort itself, I couldn't find any! (Unless I joined the climbing club who had just started scaling the cliff face!) There must be a way up to have a Hillfort here in the first place but there was no obvious route. The information board states that there were a lot of explosives used in the area in the past (one walk is called the gunpowder path) so perhaps the original access way has been destroyed? Anyway, this is such a pretty place to visit that I shall return in the summer with Karen and the children and will have another look for a path to the Hillfort.

Posted by CARL 1st November 2010ce

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