Looking across the Hafren towards North Devon from the fort interior.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2023)
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The inner rampart on the east side of the fort.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2023)
The inside of the outer rampart on the east side of the fort, from the inner ditch. Impressive earthworks!
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2023)
The muddy Wales Coast Path crossing the outer rampart on the east of the fort.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2023)
Looking along the coast towards the fort (left of centre, with St Donat’s Point beyond) from Stout Point to the east.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2023)
Steps crossing the outer western rampart near the coastal watch house.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2023)
The inner western rampart. The ruins of the Summerhouse which give the site its name can just be seen on the right.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2023)
The western ramparts boast some superb hart’s tongue ferns.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2023)
Steps built into the inner western ramparts where the Wales Coast Path crosses the site.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2023)
The view across the Hafren from the fort, looking towards Somerset. It’s unclear whether the fort would have extended much further outwards from here but the cliffs are crumbling and eroded.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2023)
The western ramparts, still accessible but very overgrown.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2023)
Looking east along the northern ramparts, now regrettably fenced off by the new owners.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2023)
The new owners aren’t keen on visitors.
Image credit: A. Brookes (2.4.2023)
The northwestern panorama of the Black Mountains from Pen-rhiw-wen (this is taken from just outside the fort to avoid the trees).
Image credit: A. Brookes (25.3.2023)
There’s a break in the banks where a stream cuts through, it’s not clear whether this was the case when the fort was in use, but the stream follows a natural course above the earthworks.
Image credit: A. Brookes (25.3.2023)
The open interior of the fort, looking towards Pen y Beacon and Twmpa, Black Mountains.
Image credit: A. Brookes (25.3.2023)
Multiple banks on the western side of the fort.
Image credit: A. Brookes (25.3.2023)
The southern end of the western bank, very overgrown even in March.
Image credit: A. Brookes (25.3.2023)
Looking southeast across the enclosure towards Pen y Beacon/Hay Bluff. There is a great panorama of the Black Mountains from this ridge across the Gwy, but views from the enclosure are mostly blocked by trees.
Image credit: A. Brookes (25.3.2023)
Underneath the swathes of dead vegetation there’s quite a decent earthwork.
Image credit: A. Brookes (25.3.2023)
Where the western bank is cut through by the minor road.
Image credit: A. Brookes (25.3.2023)
The northern bank, curving round towards the right of the image.
Image credit: A. Brookes (25.3.2023)
Looking northwest across the overgrown interior of the site.
Image credit: A. Brookes (25.3.2023)
Looking across the multiple lines of defences from inside the fort.
Image credit: A. Brookes (19.3.2023)
The steep drop from the fort down to the valley to the west.
Image credit: A. Brookes (19.3.2023)
Looking north from the hillfort. The prominent hill on the skyline is Garth Hill, topped with some very large Bronze Age barrows.
Image credit: A. Brookes (19.3.2023)
The third rampart in the foreground, with the inner (fourth) rampart beyond.
Image credit: A. Brookes (19.3.2023)
Looking towards the outer rampart of the fort from the second line of defences.
Image credit: A. Brookes (19.3.2023)
Looking from the outer rampart of the hillfort over the multiple lines of ramparts protecting the southern approach.
Image credit: A. Brookes (19.3.2023)
The northwestern bank of the southern earthwork.
Image credit: A. Brookes (19.3.2023)
The inner northwestern rampart of the southern earthwork. The path runs along the ditch between the inner and outer banks.
Image credit: A. Brookes (19.3.2023)
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), 95-100John 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), 98John Wiles 14.02.08
Mynydd Machen seen across the Sirhowy valley from Mynydd y Lan to the north.
Image credit: A. Brookes (4.3.2023)
Looking north towards the higher ridges above Tredegar and Glyn Ebwy/Ebbw Vale.
Image credit: A. Brookes (4.3.2023)
Arc of the surviving rim of the barrow.
Image credit: A. Brookes (4.3.2023)
Showing the proximity to the nearest mast compound, which is just to the SW of the barrow.
Image credit: A. Brookes (4.3.2023)
The small round barrow with dug-out centre. Looking SSE towards the summit of Mynydd y Lan.
Image credit: A. Brookes (4.3.2023)
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.
