NAR SH58SE2

A stone-walled fort occupies the summit of a prominent isolated cliff-girt limestone plateau. It is known to have been occupied through the Roman period and it may have been constructed rather earlier. It is not known when the site was abandoned.
The single walled circuit encloses an area of some 6.8ha, about 350m north-south by 320m. The 2.0-3.0m wide wall is set back from the cliff edge. It is based on lines of orthostatic slabs infilled with drystone walling. Some parts have been destroyed by quarrying. Two entrances remain. The main entance on the south is set within a slight re-entrant and is approached by a clearly defined terraceway. There is a lesser entrance on the west.
Just east of the main entrance a near circular or sub rectangular enclosure, of similar construction to the wall, is attached to the inside of the main circuit. Antiquarian accounts record several other similar attached enclosures as well as an isolated rectangular example, roughly 16m by 8.0m, in the interior.
The site has produced a quantity of Roman finds, including third-fourth century pottery, brooches and a coinhoard with issues of Nero, Vespasian and Constantine. Other finds include an iron ring-headed pin of earlier Iron Age date and a short length of iron chain.
Possible pillow mounds within the fort suggest that it was re-used as a rabbit warren in the medieval period or later.

Sources: Wynn Williams in Archaeologia Cambrensis 3rd series XV (1869), 56-61
RCAHM Anglesey Inventory (1937), 83
Lynch 'Prehistoric Anglesey' (1937), 222-26

John Wiles 09.08.07