Images

Image of Dinas (Beddgelert) (Hillfort) by postman

The higher of the two platforms is the fort, above Beddgelert, from above Pont Aberglaslyn.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Image of Dinas (Beddgelert) (Hillfort) by postman

A zoomed image of the fort above Beddgelert, from above Pont Aberglaslyn.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Image of Dinas (Beddgelert) (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Looking north from Bryn Du it’s interesting to note how the hill fort (rising immediately above Beddgelert, approx. centre) dominates the route through the Aberglaslyn Pass. It’s also very beautiful.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Dinas (Beddgelert) (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

The multi-faceted landscape of Snowdonia. Toward skyline Moel Siabod from the lower slopes of Moel Hebog. Two of the intervening crags are crowned by hill forts...

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Dinas (Beddgelert) (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Surrounded by a brooding landscape of jagged rock, beneath hanging cloud.

Image credit: A. Brookes (28.2.2015)
Image of Dinas (Beddgelert) (Hillfort) by postman

On the way back down from a windy misty Moel Hebog the skies had cleared enough to see.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Image of Dinas (Beddgelert) (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

Viewed near Dinas Emrys... Moel Hebog towers into the void above to the left, the vapour shrouding its Bronze Age cemetery. Its consort, Moel-yr-Ogof, risies immediately above, again bearing a Bronze Age monument.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone
Image of Dinas (Beddgelert) (Hillfort) by postman

The hillforts interior and a jump off into the unknown, well one presumes it plummets down to the road but it could be hyperspace for all I can see,

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Image of Dinas (Beddgelert) (Hillfort) by postman

This is the closest I could find to an entrance but it didnt seem to go anywhere.

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
Image of Dinas (Beddgelert) (Hillfort) by GLADMAN

A classic location for a hillfort, is it not?.... viewed from Moel Hebog (archive scan 1994). Moel Siabod, with its Bronze Age burials, crowns the horizon, top right. The village of Beddgelert, famous for the perfect tourist scam, lies out of shot, right. The Snowdon Massif dominates the entire picture, with Yr Wyddfa – aye, Itself – prominent [top left]. Moel Hebog, incidentally, possesses it’s own cairn cemetery.

Image credit: Robert Gladstone

Articles

Dinas (Beddgelert)

Parking is available on the A498 opposite the campsite, and a footpath almost goes up to it, it actually heads for a house called Perthi. A fallen No Access sign needs to be re-erected because I didn’t see it at all, after not seeing said sign a short slippery squelch arrives us at the hill fort.

As Gladmans Misc note reports there isn’t a lot to see in the way of ramparts and such, though it does state that no entrance could be found though they reckon its on the northwest side, if they can’t find it how do they know where it is ?
But I might have found it, there is a gap to the northwest, whether its an entrance or not I don’t know it doesn’t lead to a gentle slope as expected, but perhaps there’s been a land slip and the bit that makes it obvious as an entrance is now gone.

If you didn’t know it was a hill fort you would never guess it was, the hill top is as bare as could be, but its saving grace would be the spectacular views in all directions, though the Welsh weather God saw fit to hide even that from me. From the bottom it looked quite clear but at the top it was white out, then back at the bottom again it all cleared up, I couldn’t help getting the feeling that something somewhere was laughing at me.

This is one for people who....
Have too much time on their hands,
Want to see all that Snowdonia has to offer,
or are a tad barmy.

Two out of three ain’t bad

Miscellaneous

Dinas (Beddgelert)
Hillfort

Far less well known than the enigmatic Dinas Emrys sited a little way further up the course of the nascent Afon Glaslyn to the approx east, this fortified hilltop nevertheless looks well worth a visit, despite an apparent paucity of visible remains.... particularly when viewed from Moel Hebog in vibrant Autumn light.

According to the local Gwynedd Archaeological Trust:

‘small precipitous hill with a fairly level top measuring c.110m NW-SE by 5.5m. Parts of the circumference not naturally impregnable are protected by a single wall of roughly laid dry masonry now barely traceable. The entrance was from the NW. The interior contains no certain dwellings, but one or two slight hollows may be hut sites. Condition: almost destroyed’.

‘the wall is visible as a low scarp for a length of 40.0m on the N side of Dinas. The entrance could not be identified......‘

Sites within 20km of Dinas (Beddgelert)