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Dinas Powis (Hillfort) — Miscellaneous

Coflein description:
This is a small promontory fort crowning the highest northern spur of an isolated hill. It rests above steep slopes except on the south, where it faces the relatively level hilltop. The site was extensively excavated in 1954-9 when much early medieval material was recovered. The excavator considered this to be an early medieval fort occupying the site of an open Iron Age settlement, all overlain by a massively enclosed earthwork castle. The many caveats attending this interpretation make it problematic.
The fort is a roughly oval 0.08ha enclosure mostly defined by a broad ditched rampart with a palisade on the north. The entrance was at the north-west extremity and would have been approached along the rocky spine of the steep slopes below. There are three additional lines of ramparts on the south, one of which may have continued around the west side. The inner rampart was revetted in stone and appears to have had a timber-framed breastwork. The second rampart, also ditched, is relatively insubstantial. The two outer ramparts are again massive and appear to have been conceived as a pair, the inner again stone revetted. Traces of two rectangular buildings up to 7.5m wide were recorded in the interior.
The finds were mostly early medieval, but also included Roman material and fragments of a twelfth century pot. The ramparts overlay deposits containing Iron Age pottery. The fort does not resemble a medieval castle, but rather a later Prehistoric style hillfort and may have been established as late as the Roman period. It was clearly occupied into the early medieval period and the internal buildings could relate to this or else to an ambiguous phase signalled by the twelfth century pottery.
A bank and ditch (Bank V) running south from the fort is an old field boundary shown on the 1st edition OS County series (Glamorgan. XLVII.5 1880) and may have been connected with the enigmatic 'causeway'.
There is a second defended enclosure 130m away on the southern edge of the hilltop (NPRN 307785).

Sources: Alcock 'Dinas Powys' (1963), University of Wales Press
RCAHMW Glamorgan Inventory III.1a The Earlier Castles (1991), 95-100

John Wiles 14.02.08


Southern earthwork:
This is a rectilinear earthwork enclosure set on the southern edge of a hilltop. The site was trenched in 1958.
The earthworks consist of the north-west and north-east sides of a sharp angled enclosure at least 60m north-east to south-west by 50m, resteing elsewhere above natural slopes. It was enclosed by a stone revetted bank fronted by a ditch with a second rampart and ditch on the north-west side, with an entrance at its north-east end.
This appears to be a later Prehistoric style settlement enclosure, an interpretation confirmed by the presence of Iron Age pottery in the rampart material. A more powerfully enclosed hillfort occupies the tip of the hilltop 130m to the north (NPRN 301314).

Sources: Alcock 'Dinas Powys' (1963), 5-6, 19-22
RCAHMW Glamorgan Inventory III.1a The Earlier Castles (1991), 98

John Wiles 14.02.08
thesweetcheat Posted by thesweetcheat
17th March 2024ce

Mynydd Machen (Round Cairn) — Images (click to view fullsize)

<b>Mynydd Machen</b>Posted by thesweetcheat thesweetcheat Posted by thesweetcheat
3rd March 2024ce

Mynydd y Lan (Round Cairn) — Images

<b>Mynydd y Lan</b>Posted by thesweetcheat<b>Mynydd y Lan</b>Posted by thesweetcheat<b>Mynydd y Lan</b>Posted by thesweetcheat<b>Mynydd y Lan</b>Posted by thesweetcheat thesweetcheat Posted by thesweetcheat
3rd March 2024ce

Mynydd y Lan (Round Cairn) — Fieldnotes

Visited 4 March 2023.

A gloomy Sunday, but no rain. I walk up the steep and narrow lane from Wattsville, passing a weird shrine/well complete with life-sized saint (I think, I don't go close enough to inspect it). Views open up as height is gained, and before long I'm looking across the Sirhowy valley towards the long ridge I walked a year earlier, taking in lots of Bronze Age sites between Wyllie and Mynydd Machen.

Today's walk is easy enough, at least as far as the uphill bit goes. I arrive at a crumbling track heading east towards the masts that mark the open access plateau of Mynydd y Lan. There are a couple of dog walkers and some mountain bikers around, more people than I expected to see here.

Rather like last weekend's Foel Fynyddau visit, the area around the masts seems a bit folorn. Unlike Foel Fynyddau though, the round barrow here is much more elusive. I head off the path into the rough ground north of the masts and wander round for ages, poking around in patches of reedy grass but not finding anything. Eventually I head back towards the masts and finally, here it is! It's no great surprise that it's been so hard to find. The circular mound is very low, barely a mound at all, more like a small ring cairn it's so depleted and reduced. It is recognisably a round barrow, with a deep pit dug into the centre, now sprouting thick, reedy grasses.

Not the most impressive of monuments, even the OS surveyors missed it. Still, it's on a prominent hill with decent views, even on this grey day. After some rather unsatisfactory photos of the barrow and a snack stop, I take a narrow, boggy trail south-southeast to the hill's flattish summit, then head down to the crest of the escarpment. There are great views across to Mynydd Machen from here, the much larger barrow on that hill clearly visible.

It's now a very steep drop off the hilltop to the southeast. I obviously haven't learned my lesson from last week, but this is mercifully easier than the awful descent of Foel Fynyddau, at least until I reach the 'cleared' forestry near the foot of the hill, where the going gets tougher. I'm glad to reach a firmer track, from which it's easy to regain the road. A short day, but it's still good to be in the hills.
thesweetcheat Posted by thesweetcheat
3rd March 2024ce

Foel Fynyddau (Cairn(s)) — Images

<b>Foel Fynyddau</b>Posted by thesweetcheat<b>Foel Fynyddau</b>Posted by thesweetcheat<b>Foel Fynyddau</b>Posted by thesweetcheat thesweetcheat Posted by thesweetcheat
24th February 2024ce
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