Pont droed dros Afon Ganol - Footbridge over Afon Ganol - geograph

Bryn Euryn (; ) is a hill which is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

Conwy County Borough Conwy County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Conwy) is a county borough in Wales. It borders Gwynedd to the west and south, and Denbighshire to the east. Other settlements in the county borough include Abergele, Betws-y-Coed, Colwyn Bay, Conwy ...

, Wales. There is a

trig point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they a ...

at the summit. It lies above the seaside town of

Rhos-on-Sea Rhos-on-Sea ( cy, Llandrillo-yn-Rhos) is a seaside resort and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales. The population was 7,593 at the 2011 census. It adjoins Colwyn Bay and is named after the Welsh kingdom of Rhos established there in late ...

and village of

Mochdre, Conwy Mochdre is a village and an electoral ward to the west of Colwyn Bay in Conwy County Borough, Wales. Originally part of the municipal borough of Colwyn Bay prior to local government reorganisation in April 1974, it is now a separate community who ...

. It is 131 metres (430 feet) above sea level, and is listed as a

HuMP The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt ...

. At the bottom of the hill are the remains of Llys Euryn.

Dinerth

The site commands extensive views of the Conwy Valley and coast, and was once the location of a

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

, which was initially excavated in the autumn of 1997 for the

Gwynedd Archaeological Trust The Gwynedd Archaeological Trust ( cy, Ymddiriedolaeth Archeolegol Gwynedd) is an Archaeological Trust organisation established in 1974; it is one of four Welsh Archaeological Trusts. The trust maintains Historic Environment Records for their a ...

. The excavations revealed a "massive, well-built" wall formed from quarried limestone, believed to have once been high and to have been fronted by of rubble. There were no archaeological discoveries permitting a certain identification, but the pre-

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

layout led David Longley, the study's director, to connect it with the early-6th century king of Rhos Cynlas the Red on the basis of the "Bear Den" ( la, receptaculi ursi) mentioned in

Gildas Gildas ( Breton: ''Gweltaz''; c. 450/500 – c. 570) — also known as Gildas the Wise or ''Gildas Sapiens'' — was a 6th-century British monk best known for his scathing religious polemic ''De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae'', which recount ...

's passage on him and the surviving local name of the area as Dinerth ( owl, Din Eirth, "Fort Bear"). The hilltop was used again in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

first as an

observation post An observation post (commonly abbreviated OP), temporary or fixed, is a position from which soldiers can watch enemy movements, to warn of approaching soldiers (such as in trench warfare), or to direct fire. In strict military terminology, an ...

by the

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting w ...

; it was then used by the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

as one of the first

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

posts used to detect German bombers heading to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

References

1997 archaeological discoveries Rhos-on-Sea Hillforts in Conwy County Borough Mountains and hills of Conwy County Borough Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Clwyd {{UK-SSSI-stub

Dinerth

See also

References