CRAIG-Y-ADERYN, HILLFORT

Site Description

Craig-y-Aderyn hillfort is a dramatically situated stone walled fort that has produced finds of the Roman period. Bird Rock, Craig-y-Deryn, rises almost sheer, 230m from the once marshy floor of the Dysynni valley. On the south-west it descends more gently in a series of stepped terraces to a small level plain or col, below still higher peaks. The fort walls line the crests of the lower terraces and its gate opens onto the plain.

There are two enclosures. The innermost encloses the two higher terraces. Its walls, now turf covered, meet at an angle on an outcrop and fade away into the steeper slopes of the rock. It has very little level ground and there is no sure trace of habitation. Its entrance faces east into the outer enclosure. This encloses a relatively large and level terrace. Its walls, in contrast to those of the inner work, are now tumbled masses of bare and fractured stone. The entrance, close by the strong eastern angle, is clearly in-turned. A tumbled outer wall runs along the foot of the inner enclosure terrace on the south. It turns in at an angle to form an entrance passage to the gate. Beyond the entrance a bank, sometimes a ditch, continues the line of the outer wall.
Hillforts such as this are generally considered to date from the Iron Age, although they appear to have been contructed and maintained throughout beyond the Roman period.

In the nineteenth century a 'cwt' or hut, within the fort was dug into. The finds included Roman pottery, a weight or plumb bob, of rolled sheet lead (illustrated by Wynne Ffoulkes) and part of a curved lead bar, possibly an armlet. Weathered trenches can be observed in the eastern angle of the outer enclosure.

Sources: Wynne Ffoulkes in Archaeologia Cambrensis 4th series V (1874), 315-6
Bowen & Gresham 'History of Merioneth I' (1967), 142-4, 262, figs 56-7

John Wiles 08.06.07

Coflein

CRAIG-Y-ADERYN, HILLFORT

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