Y Werthyr Hillfort

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument.

A hillfort, which probably dates to the Iron Age period (c.800 BC - AD 74, the Roman conquest of Wales), crowning a low knoll above the marshes around the Afon Caradog and cut through by the current and former routes of the B5112. The defences consist of two, and on the NE three, concentric lines of ramparts enclosing an area 180m by 200m. Hillforts are usually located on hilltops and surrounded by a single or multiple earthworks of massive proportions, but here the ramparts are very fragmentary, being denuded by ploughing.

In the field to the E of the road it is possible to see an outer bank on the NW and NE, with the modern field wall curving round with the bank. It is also possible to see this bank on the SE side, but it is not visible on the E. On the W the line of the outer rampart is represented by a terrace 1 - 1.5m high, with a retaining wall which may have represented the original rampart facing, but which is no longer visible. The entrance may have been where this terrace curves in abruptly at the N end.

The inner bank is most clearly visible on the NW side, and can also be seen on the W side.

The disused section of road seems to lie between the inner and outer banks, and is 1.0m below the surrounding ground surface.

The site was excavated in 1965 by R G Livens. The excavator said: 'The limited excavations produced no evidence of defensive banks, or, more significantly, ditches.' Traces of the defences, at least on the northern side, appeared to have been entirely natural. The excavations have never been fully published, but the conclusion drawn is not supported by the physical remains on the site.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric settlement and defence. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated features and deposits, which may be expected to contain archaeological information concerning chronology and building techniques.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.