Within the Clwydian Range to the East of Ruthin there are two main types of hill fort - large contour forts (Penycloddiau and Moel Menlli/Foel Fenlli) , and smaller Early-to-Middle  Iron Age hill forts.

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All the forts were once thought to be contemporary, the larger ones being animal compounds and the smaller ones settlements. This is not so. Excavations by teams from Oxford (Moel y Gaer, Bodfari) and Liverpool (Penycloddiau) Universities have helped to shed some light on these forts.

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Moel y Gaer appears to have its origins  c.500 BC and was occupied through the Middle Iron Age - but evidently a small settlement.

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The Penycloddiau excavation.

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A 19 acre site  at 440m. above S.L. - the largest in Wales and among the largest by area in the UK. Concentric ramparts and ditches. Excavated 2012 and 2018/9, incorporating Geophysical survey,digital terrain survey by drone, excavation of a house platform (in an area of farm track damage) - 2nd Century B.C., and a running section across the older, Iron Age rampart.

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Key discoveries - sequence:

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• An oak palisade - 12th to 10th centuries BC.

• A second palisade, inside the first - 9th century BC. Remains of carbonised wattle fence - uprights with twisted hazel wattles. The hazel dated as 10-12 years old, suggesting coppicing. Unlikely to be a defensive structure, simply a fence.

• A period of abandonment after this - as these two covered by a layer of turf including evidence that it had burnt down.

• Apparently rebuilt, then burned again - at c. 800 BC.

• Evidence of early Iron Age occupation - contemporary with Bodfari maybe.​​

• Some evidence of hut platforms, but not many. Those found are on the eastern side of the hill, being the most sheltered.

 

Penycloddiau therefore covers both periods of hill fort development - Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age - periods of social change and innovation. Hill forts and enclosure throughout western Britain date from a similar time (though slightly earlier in Ireland) - what were the social changes which led to their construction?

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Non-hilltop sites reveal overwhelming evidence for structures, occupation, crafts,and agriculture. Pastoral predominantly but arable too. Ceramics serving a variety of functions have been found here.

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Hilltop sites provide little evidence of occupation . Maybe transhumance was practised, and the hill top sites were associated with summer pastures animal enclosures and temporary settlement. Interestingly, hill top sites were more associated with metal working, an important activity. Presumably this was seasonal too. Only the hill top sites had ramparts, and the majority of palisaded sites were on the hills. Ceramics discovered have been mainly food-related. Also the most decorative personal items have been found on the hilltops, so perhaps these sites also functioned as summer gatherings with communal meals.

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This fits well with the wider picture of a shift towards pastoral farming, with lowland cattle grazing water-meadows and wetter pastures.

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Now, here is a puzzle. It might be expected that Penycloddiau was associated with lowland sites in the Vale of Clwyd, fertile and well-watered, but despite intensive searches, including aerial, no such settlements have been found in the Vale. So more investigation needed, but was it then linked to the settlements to the east, on the Cheshire Plain side - which in turn suggests longer-distance transhumance and the possibility that Penycloddiau served as an upland summer base for a number of communities - with feasting, bartering, arrangement of marriages , resolving disputes and all the activities which would bind the different communities together.

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Thus the larger hilltop sites, though geographically peripheral, were central to the developing social and cultural lif of the Late Bronze Age.

 

 

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