Dyfed Archaeological Trust Historic Environment
Record
Use
of this information is subject to the terms and conditions of access to
Welsh HER data published on DAT's website www.dyfedarchaeology.org.uk This information is supplied
for the purposes of personal interest only and may not be used as part
of a commercial project.
Please
contact the HER if you have any further questions regarding this information,
if you would like any of the sources followed up or if you have information
that could improve the record in any way. Primary Reference Numbers (PRNs)
should be quoted in any correspondence.
Pen-y-gaer
Primary Reference Number (PRN) : 4021 Trust : Dyfed Community : Llangeitho Unitary authority : Ceredigion NGR : SN63996083 Site Type (preferred type first) : Iron Age Hillfort
Summary : Pen-y-Gaer is a defended enclosure or small hillfort located on the northern end of a rounded hilltop or ridge at 240m above sea level. It is a good naturally defensive location with land falling away steeply to the east, north and west. To the south the land is fairly level. The site consists of an oval enclosure approximately 95m north - south and 40m east west defended by a bank - there is no trace of a ditch. On the north side the bank has been incorporated into field boundaries and stands up to 2m high. Elsewhere it has been reduced to a scarp or sharp break of slope. The site of the entrance is unknown. The 1st Ed Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map shows an annexe approximately 60m long attached the south side of the main enclosure, with a possible smaller annexe attached to the north side. The map also shows a possible sub-division within the main enclosure - an earlier phase of defence? There is now no trace of this division or of the annexes. There is an old quarry on the southeast end of the main enclosure. The site is under improved pasture.
K Murphy and R Ramsey 9 January 2006
Description : Oval hillfort, c.97m x 50m, much reduced by ploughing and mutilated by a disused quarry on the south side. Hogg (Cardiganshire County History 1994, 259-260) notes earlier reference to a wide-spaced outer enclosure which cannot now be traced. He also noted that in 1955 the north rampart survived to height of nearly 2m. Potential ancient fields, radiating out from Pen y Gaer and bisected by the Roman road on the east side, first noted by T. Driver on the basis of map evidence, has since been discounted through the relatively insubstantial, post-medieval appearance of the same boundaries in the field. Visited 1st October 2000. T Driver 2004.
© DAT)