A strongly sited, pear-shaped, bivallate hillfort about 90m N/S by 84m E/W internally (NAR card), occupying a summit at the eastern end of a long ridge, which commands extensive views in all directions except to the west.

The main defence is a single strong rampart; it is tallest at the north where it stands 1.6m above the interior and up to 4m above the ditch bottom externally (Cadw Ancient Monuments Record Form). This main rock-cut ditch is traceable again on the east side, flanking the main gate where it is still c.0.80m deep, and around the south side. On the north side is a second, outer ditch, separated from the inner rampart by a flat, revetted terrace. The east gate is flanked by traces of an outer rampart, beyond the main inner ditch.

All around the innermost face of the rampart are traces of a quarry ditch. A wet area in the south-east part of the interior may have been an original spring or pond serving the fort. On the inner face of the rampart on the west side traces of an inner stone revetment are exposed.

No traces of stone revetment survive on the outer face of the main rampart, however, this is severely eroded in places, particularly on the west side. On this west side, close to the summit of the rampart, erosion has exposed a clay capping to the rampart above a stone rubble and clay rampart core. The most interesting revetment survives on the eroded outer face of the second rampart on the north side, actually a terraced outwork. Here are traces (surviving despite livestock erosion) of a massive stone revetment which includes a high proportion of quartz blocks. It is interesting to note that this impressively-fronted outwork faces west towards the most restricted vista from the fort, where the fort disappears from view after only a few hundred metres. This is the route that the present day east-west road follows past the fort and it is conceivable that the quartz-fronted outwork overlooked the main public approach to the fort, and the Cors Caron landscape, by people from outside the area. The main east gate, whilst impressively constructed and commanding extensive views east across Cors Caron, is not so similarly elaborated as the north-west perimeter of the fort.

Visit date: 1st March 2000

Extract from: Driver, T., 2005 The Hillforts of North Ceredigion: Architecture, Landscape Setting and Cultural Contexts. Unpublished PhD thesis, The University of Wales, Lampeter, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology.