Foel Drygarn ("The hill of the three cairns") is an
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 ...
hillfort, within which are three
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
burial cairns. The site is about west of the village of
Crymych
Crymych () is a village of around 800 inhabitants and a community (population 1,739) in the northeast of Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated approximately above sea level at the eastern end of the Preseli Mountains, on the old Tenby to Cardiga ...
in
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. It is a
scheduled monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
.
Description
The hill, the furthest east of the
Preseli Hills
The Preseli Hills or, as they are known locally and historically, Preseli Mountains, (Welsh: ''Mynyddoedd y Preseli / Y Preselau'' , ) is a range of hills in western Wales, mostly within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.
The range stret ...
, can be seen from miles around, and the fort was probably an important centre in its time. An inner defence on the summit encloses ; outside this are defences built at later stages on the north and east side. Each are single ramparts of dry stone and earth; there are traces of a ditch outside the inner rampart.
[Christopher Houlder. ''Wales: An Archaeological Guide''. Faber and Faber, 1978. Page 180.]
Within the inner defence are three stone cairns, regarded as Bronze Age burial mounds. In the fort there are at least 227 hut platforms. The remains represent a long period of occupation of the fort, and it is supposed that not all the dwellings were in use at the same time. Their builders evidently respected their Bronze Age predecessors, as the cairns were not plundered for the stone.[
]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 ...
, excavating the site in 1899, found Iron Age and Roman pottery, glass beads and many sling
sling may refer to:
Places
*Sling, Anglesey, Wales
*Sling, Gloucestershire, England, a small village in the Forest of Dean
People with the name
* Otto Šling (1912–1952), repressed Czech communist functionary
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ...
stones.[
]
See also
* Hillforts in Britain
* List of Scheduled prehistoric Monuments in south Pembrokeshire
References
{{Reflist
Hillforts in Pembrokeshire
Scheduled monuments in Pembrokeshire