Images

Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Pen Dinas from Aberystwyth harbour, May Day. Just before the soaking.

Image credit: A. Brookes (1.5.2017)
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

New Year sunset, looking down the Ceredigion coastline from the fort. The dark headland to the left of centre is Pendinas Lochtyn fort. Far beyond that are the Preseli hills in Pembrokeshire.

Image credit: A. Brookes (2.1.2017)
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Looking across the southern ramparts towards a snowy Pumlumon.

Image credit: A. Brookes (2.1.2017)
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Uncredited aerial photo of Pendinas from the north, part of a display in Llanbadarn Fawr church.

Image credit: Uncredited
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by MelMel

Pendinas, the Ysywyth river and Tanybwlch beach.

Image credit: july 2016
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The strongest part of the defences, separating the fort from its northern annexe (the darker green field beyond).

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.4.2015)
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The mouth of the Afon Ystwyth flows beneath the western flank of the hill. It follows a swift navigation channel, but once would have spread across the wide mouth of Tanybwlch.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.4.2015)
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The impressive multivallate defences on the east of the fort.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.4.2015)
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The rampart at the southern apex of the fort. The track crosses the earthwork, but this is not an original entrance.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.4.2015)
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Approaching from the south, through heavily scented gorse in full bloom.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.4.2015)
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

This little well is next to the path on the western slopes of the hill.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.4.2015)
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Pen Dinas, with the yellow flowering gorse, seen from Allt Wen to the southwest.

Image credit: A. Brookes (21.4.2015)
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Pen Dinas seen from Aberystwyth Castle. The mouths of the rivers Rheidol and Ystwyth reach the sea after flowing around either side of the fort.

Image credit: A. Brookes (19.4.2015)
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Pen Dinas (with the obelisk, left of centre) seen over Aberystwyth from Constitution Hill.

Image credit: A. Brookes (19.4.2015)
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by MelMel

To the left is the second part of the fort.

Image credit: 25/10/2008
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by MelMel

Tan-y-Bwlch (a shingle beach with a river running directly behind it) taken from from Pendinas hill. Pendinas and Tan-y-Bwlch form a nature reserve. The field to the left of the photo was flooded due to heavy rain.

Image credit: 25/10/2008
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by MelMel

You can’t really see much iof the fort’s structure from the beach, there are better views from other parts of town.

Image credit: 25/10/2008
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by MelMel

As seen from South Beach(it’s the one with the tower on top!).

Image credit: 25/10/2008
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by Kammer

Taken 13th June 2003: The south gateway, from the north west(ish).

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by Kammer

Taken 13th June 2003: If I’ve got the right bump, this is what’s thought to be a round barrow within the defenses of the south fort. In the background is Penparcau, a village that’s been sucked up into Aberystwyth.

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by Kammer

Taken 17th December 2002: This is the view I had to endure during this afternoon’s coffee break. Pendinas is on the left hand side of the shot, with the Wellington Monument sticking up out of the south fort (looking like a chimney).

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by Kammer

Taken April 2000: Not very prehistoric, this is the Wellington Monument which sits on the highest point of the south fort. It was built in 1858 as a memorial to the Duke of Wellington, and is supposed to represent an upturned canon. Thanks to this 18 metre lump of masonry it’s really easy to spot Pendinas from a very long way away.

Image credit: Toby Driver
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by Kammer

Taken April 2000: This is a shot of what remains of the north gateway into the south fort.

Image credit: Toby Driver
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by Kammer

Taken April 2000: This shot is taken from the isthmus (the fortified section of land between the south and north sections of the fort). The photo is taken looking south, and you can clearly make out the rampart that stands at the base of the south fort.

Image credit: Toby Driver
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by Kammer

Taken April 2000: This is what remains of the south gateway at Pendinas, from just inside the south fort. This entrance would have been lined with dry stone walling and was crossed by a timber bridge.

Image credit: Toby Driver
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by Kammer

Taken 22nd September 2002: A rather hazy shot of Pendinas taken from Castell Bwa-Drain hillfort, about 10 miles inland. The line of site between these two forts must have been used for communication purposes.

Image credit: Simon Marshall
Image of Pendinas (Aberystwyth) (Hillfort) by Kammer

Taken 20th September 2002 from the north west, this is the south summit. I took the photo from the top floor of the Llandinam Building tower at the University of Wales, Aberystwth. You can just make out the entrance to the fort on the right hand side of the shot.

Image credit: Simon Marshall

Articles

Tour of the fort (28th September 2002)

On Saturday at 2pm David Browne and Toby Driver, authors of the excellent RCAHMW publication on Pendinas, will be leading a tour of the hillfort. If you are interested in coming along, it all kicks off at 2pm by the monument on the top. Toby has told me they have some new theories about the design and arrangement of the defences, so it should be an interesting (if you’re a hillfort enthusiast). Hopefully the weather will improve before then!

Pendinas (Aberystwyth)

Viewed 14.2.2010.
I had an overnight stay in Aberystwyth but due to an allready full itinerary I didn’t have time to climb to the top. I did however view the hillfort from the top of the opposite headland (the one where the electric train takes you to the top) and a very fine view I had indeed. You could see what appeared to be the remains of ramparts amongst the fields and trees. I will have to find the time the climb the hill next time I visit Aberystwyth and give a proper report.

Pendinas (Aberystwyth)

Visited 13th June 2003: It was a spectacularly sunny day, so I thought I’d peg it up Pendinas during my lunch hour. My objectives were to find and photograph the round barrow and hut circles within the defences of the fort, then find my mate who was working somewhere on the hill clearing bracken.

I parked at the end of the footpath that approaches the fort from the north, and got to the top in less than 20 minutes. Once I’d caught my breath in the shadow of the Wellington Monument, I headed off to the south west to try and find my barrow and hut circles. The latter were easy to spot, but it turns out they’re not easy to photograph (nothing I took was worth posting up). Then I spotted what I’m pretty sure is the round barrow.

By this time I was running out of lunch hour, so I headed back down the hill, and with some help from a local woman who was walking her dog, managed to track down my mate. He’d hidden away at he top of the Rope Walk Fields, and was wielding a scythe very professionally. We had a few minutes to chat, then both of us had to get back to work.

Folklore

Pendinas (Aberystwyth)
Hillfort

Not a terribly cheerful story, actually it’s quite ghastly. I imagine the giants used to live in the hillfort at Aberystwyth? And Penparcau is just outside the ramparts. Perhaps you know the location of the other places mentioned in the tale??

(p47) Some fifty years ago, a headless dog was said to be seen near Pen Parcau, Aberystwyth. A MS. collection of giant stories made in the sixteenth century tells how a giant, going to his father’s rescue, rode at such a rate that his dog could not keep up with him and its head came off in the leash, at a spot between the two places where the headless dog was visible fifty years ago.

(p78) Maelor, [a] Cardiganshire giant, with his three sons, Cornipyn, Grugyn and Bwba, lived near Aberystwyth. One day, Maelor was caught by his enemies at Kyfeliog, some twelve miles from his stronghold. Being over-come, his request to be allowed to blow his horn thrice before being put to death was granted him. The first time he blew until his hair and his beard fell off, the second until the nails fell off his fingers and toes, and the third until the horn was shattered. Cornipyn, hearing the sound of the horn, understood what was happening, and sorrow for his father came upon him at a place still known as Cefn Hiraethog (hiraeth, longing). As he rode to the rescue, his dog failed to keep pace with him, and its head came off in the leash, at Bwlch Safn y Ci, ‘the Pas of the Hound’s Mouth.’ Cornipyn made his horse leap the valley, landing at a spot named Ol Carn y March, ‘the Steed’s Hoofmark.’ Coming to his father, he was also killed. The two other brothers were afterwards killed though cunning.

From ‘Welsh Folklore and Folk Custom’ by T. Gwynn Jones (1930).

Folklore

Pendinas (Aberystwyth)
Hillfort

On Pen Dinas, a very high and steep hill, near the bridge over the Rheidiol, is a large entrenchment, still in a good state of preservation, and where, Caradoc informs us, Rhys ap Grufydd, in 1113, encamped his forces, which, by a manoeuvre of the English, were enticed from the hill over the bridge, to besiege Aberystwyth castle, where they were surrounded and cut off almost to a man.

The tradition of the town attributes this entrenchment to the forces employed by Cromwell to beseige the castle.

p16 of ‘Excursions in North Wales’, ed. by John Hicklin, 1847. Online at google books.

Folklore

Pendinas (Aberystwyth)
Hillfort

The Wheel of Fire. -- (Informant, W.). Near the bottom of Bridge St., Aberystwyth, stands a very old house, which was tenanted 150 years ago by a butcher and his son, who sometimes let rooms. Among their guests was a pedlar and Bible colporteur, who was reputed to carry his money with him. This man disappeared and his pack was afterwards found in the river. Suspicion attached to the butcher and his son, but nothing could be proved, nor could the pedlar be found, dead or alive.

One night, however, a wheel of fire was seen to appear at the top of Pendinas*, where the Waterloo monument now stands; it rolled down hill and paused by a large tree about half-way down. This was taken as a sign from heaven; digging operations were conducted near the tree, and the body of the pedlar was found; the butcher and his son were convicted and hanged.

*A steep, conical hill just outside Aberystwyth, to the south. It is crowned with an ancient earthwork, not yet properly explored. The hill, especially the earthwork, is reputed to be haunted by the Tylwyth Teg or fairies.

p 162 in
Scraps of Welsh Folklore, I. Cardiganshire; Pembrokeshire
L. Winstanley; H. J. Rose
Folklore, Vol. 37, No. 2. (Jun. 30, 1926), pp. 154-174.

Sites within 20km of Pendinas (Aberystwyth)