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Holyhead Mountain Hut GroupAncient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork
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Visited 10.9.12 Another day – another CADW site. This is a cracking place to visit. Much better than I expected and one I would heartily recommend. Visiting couldn’t be easier either – just across the road from a large free car park! This site reminded me of the round houses in Cornwall – these are easily as good. Although the houses are not visible from the car park (due to the bracken) they soon come into view as you make your way along the ‘path’. They are all nestled together in the hillside and it is easy to imagine how cosy it must have been all those years ago. If you ever visit Anglesey it would be a shame to not visit this site. Good one. |
Posted by CARL 20th September 2012ce |
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Parking in the RSPB car park – allowed, we were off bird watching after the huts –we crossed the road and progressed along well kept grassy paths amidst a sea of bracken on the lower slopes of Holyhead Mountain. Some mature American hippies/Bronze Age wannabees passed by, one of them wearing a very nice purpley-russet poncho. The sun shone down warmly, and rounding a corner, I was treated to my first hut remains – and was instantly enchanted. What a corker of a site. White dry stone walls, approximately two and half feet high, shone in the light, contrasting with dark green bracken fronds, vibrant purple heather, and brilliant yellow gorse flowers. The turf floors were cropped close, and despite the exposed position, the whole place looked very 'gentle', for want of a better word. It was easy to visualise the low conical roofs of the roundhouses, and the people moving between the structures. Having just finished the third in Manda Scott's Boudica series of books, I was put in mind of her Iron Age vision of life. What must it have been like living in a roundhouse on an exposed cliff face? The weather had by now broken into glorious sunshine, but winter gales must have been horrendous as they drove into the cliffs, straight off the Irish Sea. One roundhouse looked as if it would have made a snug bolt hole when the tribe gathered together for food, drinking, and story telling. Presumably though, our North Walian Bronze Age ancestors were nowhere near as nesh as a modern day Southerner – and of course, the climate was warmer in those days. I thought of how they would have sustained themselves – fish caught from the beaches below, boar raised on the mountainside, and eggs taken by terrifying climbs on the perpendicular cliffs which are home to thousands of sea birds. Tasty! Before we left, I gazed out over the view our ancestors enjoyed. The Irish Sea stretched unbroken to the horizon, and to the south, the mountains of the Llyn Peninsula rose out of the sea in irregular, soft, misty blue silhouettes. It was, quite simply, superb. This post appears as part of the weblog entry Mackerel and Megaliths
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Posted by treaclechops3rd September 2006ce |
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I've seen a few hut circles in my time, but these are the most perfect I have yet seen. They may only be a series of small walls, but what small walls! Today up to 20 of them nestle among tall bracken and heather strung along the hillside which is bright purple. All beautifully restored, it's not hard to imagine them with their conical wood and thatch roofs and all the activity of domestic life... smell that roasting pork and those frying guillemot eggs! Park in the RSPB South Stack car park. And while you're here why not teeter along those cliff tops? We saw gannets and choughs! This post appears as part of the weblog entry Holy cow, it's Holy Island
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Posted by Jane31st August 2006ce |
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As Broen says try and make time to see the hut circles. It's a good starting place to walk up to the Caer y Tawr hillfort. The site is well signposted from the road to the South Stack. There are around 20 'huts' left to be seen at the foot of Holyhead Mountain dating back to the Iron Age. Some of the huts look to have stone benches and bowls. |
Posted by stubob21st April 2003ce Edited 22nd April 2003ce |
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....if you can afford time from your busy schedule, Park in the RSPB car park on the left then cross the road to a stile signed to the Hut Circles. There is plenty to look at in the main settlement but a wonder up the dirt track brings you to the huts in the image above, once seen from the right of the track there's a bit of a tricky climb down to them via a barely visable (and at the the time) overgrown footpath. |
Posted by broen6th February 2003ce Edited 18th February 2003ce |
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