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Gribin Promontory Fort, South of Solva Harbour

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NPRN94269
Map ReferenceSM82SW
Grid ReferenceSM8021023900
Unitary (Local) AuthorityPembrokeshire
Old CountyPembrokeshire
CommunitySolva
Type Of SiteDEFENDED ENCLOSURE
PeriodIron Age
Description
1. The promontory fort at Gribin is a pear-shaped enclosure, about 56m by 74m, set across a narrow ridge above the inlet to Solva Harbour. It is defined by stong scarps, possibly concealing stone-walling, and is ditched on the north-east and south. Internally there appear to be two circular and two rectangular structures.
(source Os495card; SM82SW2)
RCAHMW AP94-CS 0131
RCAHMW AP945011/70; 945013/46; 965016/61-2
J.Wiles, RCAHMW, 12 September 2003.

2. A greatly ruined, heavily overgrown promontory fort situated at the western end of a steep sided ridge south of Solva. The extent of vegetation cover is such that many of the features seen by the O.S. surveyor in 1973 could not be identified by the Trust surveyors.
Subrectangular in shape the fort appears to be formed of a mainly turf covered stone and rubble bank ranging in height from 50cm to 100cm. In places this runs along the top of a scarp which according to the O.S. surveyor is up to 3.6m high but today is concealed beneath bracken, brambles and blackthorn. Near the entrance in the north-eastern corner of the fort is a short section of inner bank approximately 1m high and separated from the outer bank by a ditch 1-2m in depth. An inner bank was also noted in the southern tip of the fort though here it survives as a low rounded bank or step at most 50cm high.
The two probable rectilinear buildings on the west side and the two probable hut circles on the east observed by the O.S. could not be identified by the Trust Surveyors - they are probably concealed beneath vegetation.
The R.C.A.H.M. description of the site is confusing, apparently relying on an account made thirty years previously by Lieut. Col. W. Ll. Morgan who found the fort to have been practically destroyed "cultivation and the erection of stone fences made it impossible to say with any degree of certainty what the nature of the work really was" (R.C.A.H.M.,1925,p411). In 1811 Fenton noted that the "whole extent [of Gribin ridge is] covered with a series of encampments, chiefly earthworks, but terminating at the extreme point towards the sea, in one circle with a single agger of loose stones bowing outward" (1811, p140).
Gribin Fort is one of several scattered along the cliffs of St David's Peninsula though Crossley (1962-1964,p182) classifies the feature as a scarp edge site rather than coastal. There is little dating evidence from Pembrokeshire enclosures (Crossley, 1962-1964, p172) but according to local historian F.W. Warburton (1944) "single piece of green glazed pottery which may be medieval" was found at the site. However, the fort is most likely to date to the Iron Age or Romano British periods.
E P Dillon NT Report "Solva"