
The cliff fort from the east...
The cliff fort from the east...
Some place to live....
Looking back toward Rhossili.... an arc of defences can be seen just below the wall, centre right. Not the most impressive of banks, but there nonetheless.
It’s easy to forget people used to live up here.... I bet the children grew up fast.
The Mam C provides scale to unwittingly emphasise the natural defences of this wondrous site...
Looking east... Thurba Camp crowns the distant ridge (the one with houses).
I’d say ‘cliff fort’ is an appropriate categorisation.
The fort occupies the flat-topped cliff, centre of image. Seen from Mewslade Bay.
Landscape context for three of SW Gower’s cliff forts. Seen across Fall Bay from Tears Point.
Approaching the fort from the east. The two lines of defence, although much-reduced, are visible crossing the picture (the inner rampart is marked by sheep).
As mentioned, the defences are not impressive in nature.... but thankfully can still be determined.
The inner bank crossing the centre of the picture. Thurba headland, with its own (better) fort can be seen on the left.
The eastern arc of the outer bank, curving across the picture from the bottom left corner to the centre.
The inner bank, with the promontory beyond.
Inner bank (mid-ground) and outer (foreground). From the east.
Visited 30.9.13
Directions:
You can either use the public footpath from Middleton to the north east or follow the coastal path from Rhossili. Either way the path runs right past this Cliff Fort.
There is not much left to see.
Just a half-circle low grass bank approximately 1m in height.
It appears that over the years the sea has washed away most of the cliff containing the majority of the fort.
Lovely views over Fall Bay.
Coflein website includes aerial photos of the fort.
Crescentic double banks with a medial ditch, c.92m in length, cut off a craggy promontory, within is a less prominent, banked & ditched subrectangularenclosure, c.20m NNE-SSW by 18m, resting against the upsurge of the steeply rising promontory; both works have N-facing entrances.