Glanfred is a triangular or pear-shaped promontory fort discovered from the air as a parchmark by Cambridge University aerial photographers in 1975 (CUCAP BUB 050, 051, 052, 7/7/75). The fort measures 99.6 m by 65.7m. The narrow end is aligned northwest and fits the shape of the promontory spur, with the broader end facing the more level 'landward' side to the southeast. The fort is basically univallate in plan but the ditch is doubled where it flanks the presumed entrance on the southeast side. Air photo mapping would suggest that the outer ditch has been added to a pre-existing univallate fort during a phase of slight enlargement. The presumed site of the main gate is obscured beneath unresponsive alluvium on the southeast side which has never parched sufficiently to reveal buried features. It is possible that the narrow, northwest apex of the fort is also broken by an additional narrow gap.

Parchmarks from aerial photography in 1975, 1995 and 1999 reveal the form of the enclosure with unusual clarity. The ditch is clearly rock-cut and of uniform width. The site was visited by T Driver during parching conditions on the 18th July 1999 where it was possible to accurately measure the ditches and pits which became visible as clear-cut patches and lines of lush growth in parched pasture (see Driver 2013, 24-25). The main fort ditch measured 3.15-3.05m along the west side where the natural slope is nearly precipitous. At the northwest apex it widened slightly to between 4.0 and 4.7 m. At the southeast end the univallate ditch was more substantial, being 6.7m just before the bivallate section. Following the division of the ditches at the broad end, the outer ditch measured 4.5m, the inner between 3.7-3.85m, with an interspace of 5.3m. The position of the bank at this bivallate section is unclear, unless the outer ditch was matched by an inner bank which was built over and superseded the earlier ditch.

Within the fort a number of rock cut pits are visible. A group of three small pits fall in a N/S line in the far northwest part of the interior. These were visible on the ground and were measured from south to north. The most southerly measured 3.45 x 2.63m; 5m north, the middle pit measured 2.30m x 2.60m, and a further 2.5m north again, the farthest north pit measured 11m long, although its full width was unclear. The pits were sited between 3.3 and 5m in from the fort ditch, suggesting minimum and maximum dimensions for any internal rampart.

Several ditches, visible as parchmarks on aerial photographs, are either connected, or run out from close to, the southern end of the fort onto a more level tract of pasture. To the immediate southwest is a small rectangular enclosure apparently related to sections of an east-west ditched trackway. It is unclear whether these linear features are the remains of contemporary field systems, or relate to much later agricultural use of the area. The site remains under permanent pasture and would benefit from ground-based remote sensing.

Visited on 18/07/99

Excavations in September 2013 by Iestyn Jones and Archaeology Wales, as part of a television programme for S4C, opened two trenches in the interior and one across the ditches of the main gate, both informed by the results of geophysics. The interior produced iron slag associated with an area of burning, apparently the first in-situ evidence for iron smelting or working in any Ceredigion Iron Age fort.


T Driver 2004 & 2013

References:
Browne, D. & Driver, T. 2001. Bryngaer Pen Dinas Hillfort, RCAHMW. p11.

Driver, T. 2005. The Hillforts of North Ceredigion: Architecture, Landscape Approaches and Cultural Contexts. Upublished phD thesis, University of Wales Lampeter.

Driver, T. 2013. Architecture, Regional Identity and Power in the Iron Age Landscapes of Mid Wales: The Hillforts of North Ceredigion. BAR British Series 583, Archaeopress: Oxford.

Driver, T. 2016. The Hillforts of Cardigan Bay. Logaston Press