Clegyr Boia, or Clegyr Fwya, is a prehistoric site on the

St David's St Davids or St David's ( cy, Tyddewi, , "David's house”) is a city and a community (named St Davids and the Cathedral Close) with a cathedral in Pembrokeshire, Wales, lying on the River Alun. It is the resting place of Saint David, Wa ...

peninsula,

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The count ...

, Wales, above the surrounding area. It is about west of

St Davids St Davids or St David's ( cy, Tyddewi, , "David's house”) is a city and a community (named St Davids and the Cathedral Close) with a cathedral in Pembrokeshire, Wales, lying on the River Alun. It is the resting place of Saint David, W ...

, and about east of the Pembrokeshire coast. The hilltop's rocky outcrop contains evidence of

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

and

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

settlements. The site's nearest water source was ''Ffynnon Lygaid'', a deep pool, fed by a spring. Near the base of the outcrop's southern side, the pool is in a small hollow, measuring about by . The site was excavated in 1902 by

Sabine Baring-Gould Sabine Baring-Gould ( ; 28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1,240 ...

, and by Audrey Williams, for the Ancient Monuments Inspectorate, in 1943. The outcrop became the stronghold of a 6th-century CE Irish pirate named Boia, after whom (with ''clegyr'' ( en, crag)) it is now called.

Neolithic

Evidence of Neolithic settlement in Wales is extremely uncommon.

Megalithic A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...

burial chambers are normally the only Neolithic structures to survive. However, an excavation of the site by Sabine Baring-Gould, in 1903, showed the remains of rectangular and circular Neolithic dwellings. An associated

midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

has been dated to around 5500 years before present (BP), during the early to middle Neolithic. Sherds of Neolithic round-bottomed pottery, polished stone axes and animal bones were also discovered. Baring-Gould thought the pottery may have been wheel-turned. No hearths were found within the dwellings. However, "substantial" charcoal deposits were found on the site, indicating fire was used, and carefully managed. Samples from the area of Neolithic occupation (hut and midden), radiocarbon dated in 1973, indicated a date of around 2370 BP, the beginning of

La Tène culture The La Tène culture (; ) was a European Iron Age culture. It developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from about 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC), succeeding the early Iron Age Hallstatt culture without any defini ...

, at the early British Iron Age, but were considered unacceptable by the National Museum Wales.

Iron Age

The hill's steep sides were augmented by a single earthen rampart, to form a defensive structure known as a hillfort. The outcrop's southern part was further enclosed by stone walls, roughly rectangular, and measuring about by . Built as a

dry-stone Dry stone, sometimes called drystack or, in Scotland, drystane, is a building method by which structures are constructed from stones without any mortar to bind them together. Dry stone structures are stable because of their construction m ...

wall, from stone rubble and earth, the ramparts stand about above the enclosure floor.

Revetted A revetment in stream restoration, river engineering or coastal engineering is a facing of impact-resistant material (such as stone, concrete, sandbags, or wooden piles) applied to a bank or wall in order to absorb the energy of incoming water an ...

with stone blocks, the walls varied between and wide and were "faced externally with large slabs set on end". According to Baring-Gould, the enclosure's original surface was below its 1903 level. The enclosure's entrance may have been through a tunnel. Radiocarbon dated samples from near the hillfort entrance indicate a date of around 1950 BP (1 BCE), the late Iron Age.

References

{{reflist, 33em Buildings and structures completed in the 1st century BC Prehistoric sites in Pembrokeshire Populated places established in the 5th millennium BC Neolithic settlements Stone Age sites in Wales Hillforts in Pembrokeshire Former populated places in Wales 1902 archaeological discoveries 1943 archaeological discoveries