Landscape context from Hadnock, just over the River Wye to the south. The hill rises vertically from the river.
Image credit: A. Brookes (30.7.2022)
Images
At the southeastern extremity of the fort there are no ramparts, just sheer cliffs.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.7.2018)
The eastern ramparts – the inner bank on the right has been damaged by the addition of a track that’s cut into the earthwork.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.7.2018)
I agree with MelMel that the forestry track on the east side of the fort has been cut into the inner rampart.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.7.2018)
The open interior of the fort.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.7.2018)
Rampart on the southwest. The ground drops away steeply below these defences, to the River Wye over 150m below.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.7.2018)
Heavily overgrown ramparts along the north side of the fort.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.7.2018)
At the northern end of the fort.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.7.2018)
Two lines of ramparts on the northwestern side of the fort.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.7.2018)
Western ramparts.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.7.2018)
Approaching the fort from the west.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.7.2018)
Artists impression on the information board
Closer view of the sign in the picture above..
Image credit: melmel 13/03/2011
Restoration work being done to the early 19th century hermit’s hut that was built into the side of the rampart.
Image credit: melmel 13/03/2011
Trees on the outer rampart. The tree in the foreground is in front of the entrance.
Image credit: melmel 13/03/2011
The back of the rocks. It would have been very difficult for an enemy to scale that!
Image credit: MelMel 13/3/2009
The slope of the hill is a natural defence
Image credit: MelMel 13/3/2009
Image credit: MelMel 13/3/2009
No need for a rampart when you’ve got this...
Image credit: MelMel 13/3/2009
What I thought to be a rampart
Image credit: MelMel 13/3/2009
Outer rampart and ditch
Image credit: MelMel 13/3/2009
It looks like the path’s been cut into the rampart.
Image credit: MelMel 13/3/2009
The mound on the rampart... I have no idea what this is, or its age.
Image credit: MelMel 15/2/2009
Top of the mound
Image credit: MelMel 15/2/2009
This is the rampart with the mound on it
Image credit: MelMel 15/2/2009
Rampart is behind the big trees.
Image credit: MelMel 15/2/2009
Ditch
Image credit: MelMel 15/2/2009
Don’t know what this hole in the ground is.. possible well?
Image credit: MelMel 15/2/2009
Image credit: MelMel 15/2/2009
You can see how steep it is on the one side of the rampart.
Image credit: MelMel 15/2/2009
You can see the ends of 2 of the ramparts to the left and right of the picture, but nothing in between.
Image credit: MelMel 15/2/2009
There are some depressions in the ground in the apparent gap.
There could be more defences down that slope
Image credit: MelMel 15/2/2009
Taken where you’d expect there to be a rampart..
Image credit: MelMel 15/2/2009
Image credit: MelMel 15/2/2009
Image credit: MelMel 15/2/2009
The view was of trees the last time I came here! (august 2008)
Image credit: Melmel 15/2/2009
This photo was taken a week after the tiny amount of snow we had stopped falling.
Image credit: MelMel 15/2/2009
Another bank of earth.
Ditch. In the bottom right hand corner is the track put in for the tree felling.
Taken on rampart. You can see a ditch and another bank of earth.
Taken on the rampart.
Arrow points to what i believe to be the inner rampart. It’s difficult to tell as the place is a mess.
Articles
Be careful in the summer- there are insects (wood ants?) that gave my dog some nasty bites.. so bad we don’t go up there in summer anymore.
I visted little Doward Camp today.
I walked along the rampart which is on the left (with the big hacked up tree on the end of it) when you enter the fort (from Crockers Ash direction) which led to a path that follows the outside of the rampart, and found another rampart and ditch in the woods.
I then walked down the path which goes down the slope where there are no defences. I saw something that I at first thought might be a rampart but was actually rock (which looks like limestone). I walked on the path that goes around the hill; the rock is very high(like a small cliff), and the hill is extremely steep so they act like a natural set of defences.
There are a number of other historic features near the fort, including an iron age causeway, have a look on the Herefordshire Sites and Monuments Record:
smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/hsmr/db.php
Little Doward Camp is a scheduled ancient monument, in a Site of Special Scientific Interest and near Regionally Important Geological Sites.
I revisited the fort on the 15th of February 2009. Most of the clearance of the site seems to be finished, so you can get a really good idea of the scale of the place. It’s huge! I’d estimate it’s nearly a quarter of a mile wide. Around some of the edges of the fort are some really steep drops, so be careful.
On one the ramparts there is some kind of mound. I’m really not sure what this is or how old it is. It could be modern.
On the South Eastern edge of the fort there seem to be no defences, so maybe they’re somewhere further down the slope of the hill?
It’s also interesting to note there’s a Roman Settlement at the bottom of the hill in Lord’s Wood..
There’s work going on to clear the trees at this site, so you’re probably better off visiting out of working hours, otherwise you won’t be allowed in there. This site is a mess at the moment. Lots of the site (and the hill) is taped off at the moment. They haven’t cleared away branches, etc, so it’s likely that it will end up in the same state (i.e. overgrown and covered in trees) again. Because of this, it’s difficult to really get an impression of the scale of the site. The site left me disappointed, and frustrated by the over zealous conifer planting policies of the 1950s.
Though this is still England, you can forgive anyone for thinking it’s Wales. In fact, this is border country. Little Doward rises high above the river Wye, just south of Goodrich Castle and Simonds Yat, which are better known places. Little Doward, however, is the one connected to Vortigern and the Dark Ages.
This hillfort above Ganarew is the foremost candidate for the elusive ‘Caer Guorthegirn’ (City or Fortress of Vortigern) is . Vortigern, on the run from St Germanus, fled into Wales to one of his strongholds. We know several of them, ranging from Gwynedd in the north, Dyfed in the west to this one, high above a loop of the river Wye. ‘Nennius’ describes it as being located in the region of Gueneri or Guenessi is probably Gwent, but the actual location is far from clear. ‘Gueneri’ can very well be equated with Ganarew (below).
The hillfort, which lies just to the east of the A 40 (T) a few miles north of Monmouth, is hardly accessible today. No paths lead to the summit of the hill, which is heavily wooded anyway. The OS Landranger map does show a fort, but it is very overgrown and spooky. One has a very nice view from the fort of the Wye and the surrounding countryside though.
A good view of the hill for those too daunted to attempt a visit is from the little hamlet of Ganarew, especially from the church (which is unfortunately closed most of the time). But one should take care, for leaving or rejoining the A40 can be quite hazardous due to heavy traffic.
The Trioedd Ynys Prydain (“The Triads of the Island of Britain”) were compiled in the 13th century*. Triad 5126 describes Vortigern, who was not a very nice man. But he came to a sticky end:
“[He] first gave land to the Saxons in this Island, and was the first to enter into an alliance with them. He caused the death of Custennin the Younger, son of Custennin the Blessed, by his treachery, and exiled the two brothers Emrys Wledig and Uthur Penndragon from this Island to Armorica, and deceitfully took the crown and the kingdom into his own possession. And in the end Uthur and Emrys burned Gwrtheyrn in Castell Gwerthynyawn beside the Wye, in a single conflagration to avenge their brother.”
The triads had been influenced by Geoffrey of Monmouth’s work, the ‘History of the Kings of Britain’ (c1138). (a translation of which is online at yorku.ca/inpar/geoffrey_thompson.pdf )
and this similarly describes Arthur going to
“.. the town of Genoreu, whither Vortigern had fled for refuge. That town was in the country of Hergin, upon the river Gania, in the mountain called Cloarius.”
(bear with me here)
People (eg John Edward Lloyd in
The English Historical Review, Vol. 57, 1942) have suggested that Genoreu is ‘Ganarew’, which is today the name of the settlement below Little Doward hillfort. So this could be the intended scene of this story. For another Arthurian link, there is a cave on the hillside called “King Arthur’s Cave“.
*but you have to bear in mind that Iolo Williams had an overactive imagination too.
Sites within 20km of Little Doward
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King Arthur’s Cave
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Seven Sisters Rocks
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Symonds Yat
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The Queen Stone
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The Buckstone
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Long Stone (Staunton)
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Clearwell Caves
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Middle Hendre
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Chase Wood Hill
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St Weonard’s Tump
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The Longstone (St Briavels)
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Harold’s Stones
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Garway Hill
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Soudley Camp
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Welshbury
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Gamber Head
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Devil’s Lap of Stones
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Camp Hill (Aylburton)
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Oakhill Wood
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Pen-Rhiw
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Camp Hill
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Black Cliff
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Worgan’s Wood
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Aconbury
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Capler Camp
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East Vaga
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Castle Hill Wood
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Gaer Hill
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Oldbury Camp
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Chepstow Park Wood
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Wibdon Broadstone
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Lancaut
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Cherry Hill Camp
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Maen Llwyd (Llanddewi Skirrid)
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Coed y Bwnydd
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Gaer-fawr (Usk)
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