Mysterious Britain & Ireland

Category: Ancient Sites

Ancient Sites

Moel Faner Hillfort

With an entrance facing towards the north-east, this oval shaped hillfort is probably from the Iron Age. It lies at a height of 950 feet, on a promontory of a hill overlooking the Nannau estate and the Mawddach valley. The fort was small, being about 0.5 acres and the single wall enclosing the fort would have been about six feet high, but it is now quite trampled.

Ancient Sites / Folklore / Roman

Bryn-y-Castell

Taking the B4391 towards Bala from Llan Ffestiniog for just over a mile, you pass close to an Iron Age hillfort situated in rough moorland known as Bryn-y-Castell. The site was excavated by students from Plas Tan-y-Bwlch (Maentwrog) between 1979 and 1985, and it was found to be an important site for iron production until the arrival of the Romans in North Wales when it was abandoned.

Ancient Sites / Burial Mounds

Trefal Stone

The following article by Nick Dermody about the Trefal Stone appeared on the BBC Wales website on 24 May 2012.

‘Archaeologists are to exhume and analyse human bones found under a prehistoric monument only recently identified as a burial site cap.

Ancient Sites

Ty Mawr hut group (a.k.a. Cytau’r Gwyddelod, or Irish Huts)

These Iron Age remains of circular buildings can be found on Holy Island, near South Stack on Anglesey. The site consists of ten large circular stone rings (the remains of Iron Age huts) on the hillside with nine smaller rectangular structures (probably workshops for metal working) scattered among them, covering an area of up to twenty acres.

Ancient Sites / Roman

Caer-y-Twr

Caer-y-Twr is the remains of an Iron Age hill fort on the summit of Holyhead mountain (Mynydd Twr) 220 metres in height. Due to its position, it did not need much additional defence, but it had a stone rampart on the northern and eastern sides enclosing an area of roughly seven hectares. The site of the hill fort now contains mostly rubble, but the walls can still be identified.

Ancient Sites / Early Christianity / Wells

Ffynnon Barruc (St Barruc’s Well)

St Barruc’s Well is today capped and the once healing waters were diverted to make way for a Butlins holiday camp in 1965. Luckily though descriptions of the well survive. Wirt Sykes in British Goblins (1881) tells us that ‘on Barry Island, near Cardiff, is the famous well of St.

Ancient Sites / Early Christianity / Legends

St Barruc’s Chapel

St Barruc is said to have been buried on Barry Island, possibly at the chapel which was dedicated to him. The ruins of this chapel are on Friar’s Road overlooking Jackson Bay.

Ancient Sites / Early Christianity / Folklore / Folktales / Wells / Welsh Folktales

Ffynnon Elian (St. Elian’s Well)

St Elian’s Well, like most Holy Well’s was associated with having healing properties until around 1723 when it developed a reputation for being a cursing well. Thought to have sprang forth to quench the thirst of St Elian in the 6th century, the well was a source of pilgrimage for many centuries.