NAR SN67NW6

The plateau between the Rheidol and Ystwyth Valleys is cut by a small stream, Nant Paith, whose valley has left a spur which is easily accessible from the north but otherwise steep-sided. The enclosure is pear-shaped with the narrow end towards the south. Around the steep sides the rampart is reduced to a scarp but where it cuts across the spur it consists of an earthen bank and ditch about 15m by 3m overall. No revetment is visible. Ten metres further north another defence, of similar width but only a metre high, runs for 25m across the spur. The site is heavily wooded and the location of the entrance is uncertain. After Davies and Hogg, 1994, The Iron Age, in Cardiganshire County History, p 260-261.

The site is the largest univallate hillfort in Ceredigion. Access into the fort was probably around the western terminal of the main rampart, in much the same way as with Castell, Tregaron, to the south-east.
T Driver.

Revised description:
The largest univallate hillfort in Ceredigion, this is a strongly defended promontory fort which commands the northern edge of the small valley of the Nant Paith. The principal defences are a broad rampart 170m in length, 3m high overall and about 15m wide at its base, which cuts across the neck of the promontory from west to east, flanked on the north (outer) side by a single ditch, which is partly bivallate at the eastern end. The rampart uses the natural slope to maximum effect and this may have reduced the amount of artificial work required. For much of its length the rampart is poorly preserved today, with many animal burrows in its central part, but it still stands tall and well-preserved at its western end where it in-turns and is flanked by a well-preserved rock-cut ditch terminal. This is probably the site of the main gate into the fort, and the good preservation may reflect differential construction effort expended on this terminal. The bivallate defences at the east end of the promontory only run for some 75m, and may have been constructed solely to defend the main approach across the level neck of the promontory, as the slopes fall away on both sides. These defences comprise an outer ditch, a central plateau of apparently untouched ground surface, and the inner ditch; the west terminal of the inner ditch widens out on the north side and one explanation for this would have been to make the bivallate defences more visually impressive to those passing by on their approaches to the main gate. The inner ditch is rock-cut.

The natural approach to the hillfort appears to have been across the neck of the promontory from higher ground to the north. The `U' shaped promontory is defended on all other sides by very steep natural slopes, and the Ordnance Survey plan of 1974 shows some scarping defining the west, south and eastern edges of this promontory, although these can barely be traced today in the wooded undergrowth.

The interior is featureless, save for a prominent rise in the ground level from west to east; this easterly knoll may have served to demarcate the usage of the interior space. Searches of the roots of upturned trees revealed no finds in the thickly wooded interior; similarly, there are no traces of stone revetment present in the main hillfort rampart, despite quite severe digging in places by burrowing animals.

The hillfort commands a coherent, restricted territory of the Nant Paith valley, only 3.14 km inland of Pen Dinas hillfort on the coast, but hidden from direct view and independent of either of the main valleys of the Rheidol to the north and the Ystwyth to the west and south. The next nearest hillfort is New Cross Camp (Cefn y Caer), 2.1km to the south-east. The wooded, pasture-dominated landscape of the Nant Paith valley has largely made it unresponsive to cropmark discoveries from the air, and it is likely that further potential small Iron Age enclosures remain to be discovered in the hinterland of these larger hillforts.

T Driver. 4th June 2004