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Castell Caer Seion

Hillfort

<b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by thesweetcheatImage © A. Brookes (1.4.2018)
Also known as:
  • Castell Caer Leion
  • Mynydd y Dref

Nearest Town:Conwy (1km ESE)
OS Ref (GB):   SH760778 / Sheet: 115
Latitude:53° 16' 56.24" N
Longitude:   3° 51' 36.46" W

Added by Rhiannon


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<b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by thesweetcheat <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by postman <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by postman <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by postman <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by postman <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by postman <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by postman <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by postman <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by postman <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by postman <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by postman <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by postman <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by skins <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by skins <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by skins <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by skins <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by skins <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by skins <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by skins <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by GLADMAN <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by GLADMAN <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by caealun <b>Castell Caer Seion</b>Posted by caealun

Fieldnotes

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After dropping the kids off at school and collage I decided that it has been too long since I last went out, it's payday and there are blue skies and fluffy white clouds overhead so I grab me stuff, jump in the car and head out west.
The weather in Wales and me don't get on all the time, in fact we argue constantly, I want sunshine and rainbows but Wales doesn't care what I want so it tries it's level best to deter me from coming at all, today was no different. The head sized hailstones half way there almost made me turn round but i'm more persistent than that.
By the time I parked in the car park the weather had settled into murky low cloud, the fort is visible on the euphemistically named Conway mountain, but there is no direct route, so a half mile walk east down the road to a crossroads turn left on to a wide footpath follow that up hill till you get to a T junction of footpaths, left again, when a right turn going uphill presents itself take it for a now direct route to the "citadel".
Upon my return home and looking it up on Coflein I can see that the hill fort proper is much bigger than I thought so all I had a look at was the citadel, don't make this mistake.
The citadel, I will continue to call it this, just for a laugh, takes up only a quarter of the entire fort, but it is the best preserved part, actually it has been partially restored if the pictures on Coflein are anything to go by.
I've been trying to find the time to come here for a couple of years and so far the weather is kind of cooperating, the wind is very strong but the rain passed by just a couple hundred meters away. I only spotted two definite round house platforms, there are more.
The battery in my camera now chooses it's moment to let me down, so I swear loudly at it, it doesn't seem to have any effect. I take it as a sign that it is time to go home and pick the kids up, but I stroll side ways over to a vantage point across from the fort and whisper sweetly to the camera, it allows me a few more photos, that's why we anthropomorphise.
I don't fancy retracing my steps laboriously back to the car so I try and head back in a straight line, it didn't go well, two barbed wire fences, a wall and a small stream have to be crossed whilst keeping out of view of the two nearby houses, it was more fun but it probably took longer than the right way.
postman Posted by postman
1st May 2016ce
Edited 1st May 2016ce

Folklore

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This fort is on the summit of Mynydd y Dref (Conwy Mountain). It has 24 hut circles inside, and some outside its walls. There's the remains of a larger building (a 'citadel' so Coflein grandly says) at one end of the fort.

This from 'Notes and Queries', March 12,1870.
I have [examined repeatedly the] remains on Conway mountain. They are intensely interesting.. They consist of a multitude of circular structures partly sunk below the ground, with rough walling a little raised above, evidently the substructure for huts... They are called by the country people "Cyttiau Gwyddelod," which is generally interpreted " the huts of the Irishmen," but which in its primary meaning is "the huts of the savages," or wild men, in contradistinction from the Gal, or agricultural race.
'Cytiau' (so I understand from the dictionary) does imply a rude kind of hut, more of an animal shelter, so this could be a dig at the Irish?? Or maybe not at all. Maybe a Proper Welsh person can explain the subtleties of the phrase for me.
Rhiannon Posted by Rhiannon
9th September 2006ce