Foel Drygarn

Foel Drygarn ("The hill of the three cairns") is an Iron Age hillfort, within which are three Bronze Age burial cairns. The site is about 1.5 miles (2 km) west of the village of Crymych in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is a scheduled monument.[1]

Foel Drygarn
Aerial view looking southwards
Shown within Pembrokeshire
LocationNear Crymych, Wales
grid reference SN 158 336
Coordinates51°58′14″N 4°41′1″W
TypeHillfort
Area1.2 hectares (3.0 acres)
History
PeriodsBronze Age
Iron Age

Description

The hill, the furthest east of the Preseli Hills, can be seen from miles around, and the fort was probably an important centre in its time. An inner defence on the summit encloses 1.2 hectares (3.0 acres); outside this are defences built at later stages on the north and east side. Each are single ramparts of dry stone and earth; there are traces of a ditch outside the inner rampart.[1][2]

Within the inner defence are three stone cairns, regarded as Bronze Age burial mounds. In the fort there are at least 227 hut platforms. The remains represent a long period of occupation of the fort, and it is supposed that not all the dwellings were in use at the same time. Their builders evidently respected their Bronze Age predecessors, as the cairns were not plundered for the stone.[1][2]

Sabine Baring-Gould, excavating the site in 1899, found Iron Age and Roman pottery, glass beads and many sling stones.[1][2]

See also

References
  1. "Foel Drygarn hillfort" Coflein. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  2. Christopher Houlder. Wales: An Archaeological Guide. Faber and Faber, 1978. Page 180.
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