Cae Gaer is a banked and ditched enclosure laid out across the upper slopes of a hill at the centre of a mountain valley.
It is an embanked, round-angled enclosure in the form of a parallelogram, about 110m north-south by 85m, with north and south facing entrance gaps. Excavations in 1913 showed that the ramparts were built of turf and had been topped by a palisade. Complex patterns of post-holes were recorded in the entrance gaps. No Roman, or other identifiable find were recorded, suggesting that the site had

The Gaer is generally identified as a Roman military establishment belonging to the early stages of the Flavian conquest, probably sited to safeguard the east - west route between the upper reaches of the Severn / Wye and the Rheidol / Ystwyth rivers. It is probable that it had a short life and its size suggests it was built to serve a less than full strength unit.

There are similar sites at Caer Noddfa (NPRN 304892) and Llanfair Caereinion (NPRN 306757).

Sources: Pryce in Archaeologia Cambrensis 14 (1914), 205-220
Jarrett 'The Roman Frontier in Wales' Second Edition (1969), 132-5
Davies 'The Roman Period' in the Cardiganshire County History I (1994), 297-8.

[Additional:] See also NPRN 415461. RFS/RCAHMW/Dec. 2012

John Wiles, RCAHMW, 11 May 2007