Moel y Gest is a hill to the west of

Porthmadog Porthmadog (; ), originally Portmadoc until 1974 and locally as "Port", is a Welsh coastal town and community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd and the historic county of Caernarfonshire. It lies east of Criccieth, south-west of Blaenau Ffest ...

in North

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It is a very rocky hill with high

topographic prominence In topography, prominence (also referred to as autonomous height, relative height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop or relative height in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contou ...

because of the lower land that surrounds it on all sides, and qualifies as a Marilyn. The views from the top are far ranging and include the

Llŷn Peninsula The Llŷn Peninsula ( cy, Penrhyn Llŷn or , ) extends into the Irish Sea from North West Wales, south west of the Isle of Anglesey. It is part of the historic county of Caernarfonshire, and historic region and local authority area of Gwynedd. Mu ...

, the

Rhinogydd The Rhinogydd (a Welsh plural form, often anglicised as Rhinogs and also known by the alternative Welsh plural Rhinogau) are a range of mountains located east of Harlech in North Wales. The name ''Rhinogydd'' derives from the names of two of the m ...

Moelwynion The Moelwynion (a Welsh language, Welsh plural, sometimes Anglicisation, anglicised to Moelwyns) are a group of mountains in central Snowdonia. They extend from the north-east of Porthmadog to Moel Siabod, the highest of the group. The name deriv ...

Moel Hebog Moel Hebog (Welsh for ''Bare Hill of the Hawk'') is a mountain in Snowdonia, north Wales which dominates the view west from the village of Beddgelert. It gives name to a whole range of peaks in the north-western corner of Snowdonia, which i ...

, and

Snowdon Snowdon () or (), is the highest mountain in Wales, at an elevation of above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles outside the Scottish Highlands. It is located in Snowdonia National Park (') in Gwynedd (historic ...

Ascent

Moel y Gest can be climbed by approaching it from the south, starting from the unclassified road from Porthmadog to Black Rock Sands. This crosses pasture fields before reaching steeper slopes with

gorse ''Ulex'' (commonly known as gorse, furze, or whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are n ...

and

bracken Bracken (''Pteridium'') is a genus of large, coarse ferns in the family Dennstaedtiaceae. Ferns (Pteridophyta) are vascular plants that have alternating generations, large plants that produce spores and small plants that produce sex cells (eggs ...

. There are a number of interconnecting paths on the slopes. The summit is rocky with rough grass and boulders, and there is a cairn and a path along the ridge. Other routes up the hill are available from the northeast, north and elsewhere but there seems to be no main path.

Historic sites

At the summit of Moel y Gest is 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 shows some resemblance to the "nuclear forts" of the Early Middle Ages found in Scotland. Like these, it has a "court" system with loops of wall and a "citadel". However the fort has several peculiarities which makes it difficult to understand. For most of its perimeter, the boundary defenses follow natural features to give it good defensive potential, but at the northwestern part, where the entrance lies, it is set back from the cliff making it vulnerable to an approaching enemy who would be invisible until close at hand. The perimeter wall contains a selectively large numbers of white, quartz stones, and it is possible the fort had a religious rather than military significance. There is also the remains of a round hut on the northern flanks of the hill at an elevation of about . This has an entrance on the southwestern side and a diameter of , with walls thick and high.

References

{{reflist Mountains and hills of Gwynedd Mountains and hills of Snowdonia Marilyns of Wales Hillforts in Gwynedd Hillforts in Snowdonia Porthmadog