I have to admit all the pictures on this page of hillforts are mine, and almost all the picture of sites are in North Wales, Though I try to bring more of the rest of Wales into this page's writing, as is vital to the story of these fortifications in the country

 

So anyhow, Wales has been called, the "land of castles", with this title well deserved as it numbers over six hundred. Though it could just as easily be labelled a "land of hillforts", as there are even more hillforts in Wales than castles. Indeed some when including structures that are almost as small as defended farmsteads, say there are 1,000 in the principality.

 

It is the land, as it is where I live,  where I have seen more hillforts than anywhere else.

 

With below some pictures of some of ones I have been by or on.

 

The hillforts of Wales cover the map of this region probably more than any other piece of the two largest islands of the British Isles. This is as England has some areas, a small amount really, which are simply too flat, and lacking in hills for anything that could really be called a hillfort. Though it has promontory forts in some of those areas, they are only able to be on the coast in many of those cases. Then for Cornwall, there is a mildly similar situation, where coastal forts are key as of it's long coastline. With for Ireland, large areas being covered or by lakes, and such flatter lands, mean it actually has areas which are more likely to have a crannog than a hillfort. While for Scotland, as well as also possessing it's fair share of lakes or lochs, and also isles, which sometimes do and sometimes do not have a good amount of hillforts. Also a reverse situation occurs, where some areas such like the Grampian Mountain areas, have the mountain ranges too high for settlement at that latitude in big numbers, causing a massive gap in hillforts distribution accordingly. 

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Anyhow, Wales, had these hillforts right from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. In this Iron Age era there were some great hillforts, including the one at Dyserth in North Wales, Moel Hiraddug, a hillfort I have been to more than I have been to any other. Plus Castell Henllys in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales, which was turned into a great site for experimental archaeology, and thus has had Iron Age roundhouses sitting within it, since the 1990s, and a Iron Age style entrance in some senses. So to any hillfort fan, a great site to have visited. 

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Indeed, no corner of Wales escapes, from having a good fort in it's vicinity, from Anglesey's Caer y Twr, right up in the North West tip, to right across North Wales, and through Mid Wales. For instance the site of Gaer Fawr, near Welshpool in Mid Wales, which sits covered in trees upon a hill, elevated in the middle of the grassy farmland of other forested tufts of hills and plateau of the area. Here a boar figurine was found from the Iron Age, that likely would have been attached to a Warrior's helmet. Evoking brilliant scenes of artwork, and military pride and bravado. It had a story of starting as a summit fort, then expanded with a annex into almost six hectares. Surely a dominant force in the landscape at the time. 

 

There is  also a fine one overlooking the coastal town of Aberystwyth, Pen Dinas, like a crows nest on a hill overlooking it. Whose history like so many has been estimated at after excavations. Indeed it has seen signs of rebuilding of entrances and redesigns across it's long Iron Age history, and other examination. Some speculate fire damage indicates there was a raid in the middle of the Iron Age, but others wonder if it just indicates a accident. With finds indicating pottery, and even glass beads traded all the way from Meare Lake village, a Iron Age Glastonbury lake Village style location in Somerset.

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With of course many more dotting the South West Wales counties profusely.

They also spread in patches all the way to South East Wales, with them being of big numbers among the legendary though true, Silures of South East Wales. Who as a loose tribal confederacy used their tactics and geography to hold off entire Roman Legions, where much wealthier and bigger kingdoms to the east had as of their geography been less able to do so. Indeed at the Roman site of Caerleon a hillfort sits on a hill overlooking the site.

 

These hundreds of forts led a variety of different tribal confederations, across many hillforts and settlements. A great many as in England went out of use in the Roman era, when Wales saw Roman forts on some scale in every corner of the land. Indeed Caerleon's Roman fort in South East Wales, and Chester just over the border from North East Wales, in North West England, are 2 of the finest Roman sites in Britain where thousands and thousands of people would have lived. This is a testimony to the ancient Britons to the Romans, as for instance Iberia only needed 1 Roman Legion to keep a hold of it. Though it was more so according to experts, in the case of Chester, to watch out for rebellions in Northern England, the former Brigantes territory that happened into the 2nd Century AD. Plus to protect off forces from Caledonian Scotland, that were a greater security risk to Rome as the empire consolidated itself in the southern half of Britain that it held, .

 

Caerwent a walled town, also in South East Wales, was a site for the native tribe the Silures who it is said, were moved from their many disparate hillforts, to a more Roman style of society. Partly this was Roman force, a policy of their’s to Romanise the natives of their territories, and Romanise them and make them self sustaining areas, so thus less taxing on Rome's resources. Plus partly surely economic pressures caused may Silures to accept this choice. In fact it's walls today are still high, and many remnants of Rome turn up in the soil. Sites like Llanmellin Wood hillfort nearby thus became unimportant, and likely even unused. It must be said though that  Wales, saw a small number of forts survive in terms of use, especially in areas further from the main Roman sites. Indeed most experts claim Rome may have let the native people of the land, do their own thing to a extent, as long as they gave some form of resources to Rome, and did not rebel. As shown by how most of the empire, like Iberia except for the Basques, Gaul, and Italy, even Romania, saw a form of "vulgar" Latin develop into the Romance languages of today even for the common people. It is possible that eastern England, was becoming Latin speaking before the Saxons arrived, but for the rest of Britain, except for the large Roman towns, that was not so. In Wales and Cornwall the Brythonic Celtic language remained and developed into Welsh and Cornish. Well in North Wales Penmaenmawr's Braich Y Dinas hillfort, and a number of others saw plenty of use during the Roman era. In fact Wales's greatest surviving fort, Tre'r Ceiri, one of the  highest hillforts in Wales, and among the most populous and best preserved, and in terms of preservation, in Britain as a whole. Well, it had it's peak during the Roman era. I must add today Braich Y Dinasis gone, replaced by a quarry, which is tragic, considering it was likely as brilliant as Tre'r Ceiri. These forts must have been Celtic culture sites, that had come to a agreement with Rome, to allow their ways to a extent. Despite how Roman roads known as the "Sarn Helen", named after a semi-mythical wife of a Romantisised British linked Roman Emperor, cris-crossed Wales, as much as much of the rest if Roman Britannia. Rraching to Holyhead's trade with Ireland, and the gold mines of Dolacouthi in the South West, past small forts like Caerhun in North Wales on the Conwy's lower stretches. 

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After Rome fell, hillforts saw a boost across the island of Britain, as Roman towns lost access to the economy that helped make them sustainable. Over the border in Western England hillforts saw a modest boom, never as much as their Iron Age peak, but still a very noticeable one. Plus also Wales saw a growth in their numbers in parts where they had become a thing of the past. Such as at Dinas Powys in Glamorgan, which took many months to build, and then became a redoubt for what must have been elites, with pottery even of Mediterranean imports, and metal working. This site lasted till the 7th Century, so a couple of centuries, ending when state building in England and Wales seems to have made hillforts less of a choice for elites. In the very connected to North Wales at the time, Eddisbury in Cheshire, along it's northern ridge, there was also reoccupation after the Romans, by it's post-Roman, Britons.

 

Across what I still like to call the Dark Ages, there were occurrences where hillfort style settlements were in use. From the north to the south of Wales. There were other more lowland, court sites, and such used as well, but perhaps that was something that occurred in the Iron Age as well.

 

North Wales' Rhos on Sea, in the Dark Ages, had Bryn Euryn. The fort may have been a base of a character criticised by the 6th Century monk, Gildas, known as Cynlas the Red, “the rider of a chariot, which is the receptacle of the bear”. The bear being the surely by that description, either a bear-like angry persona, or maybe a barrel chested political strongman figure. Many claim this to be the case, as part of the area round there was traditionally known as Din-erth, which is likely a mutation from Fort of the bear. Excavations here, revealed a Dark Ages fort atop of the hill, with limestone walls 10 foot high, and the ramparts 11 foot wide.

 

Foel Fenlli, on the Clwydian Hills, which was also reoccupied, had a powerful figure like this, who major Christian leaders of the time in the period after Rome, who came to Britain were not fans of.

 

In the second millennium and as the Middle Ages wore on, hillfort sites were supplanted by castles across Wales. In some cases, old hillfort sites were still used. As most spectacularly above North East Wales's Llangollen, where unusually a castle is built right on the crest of a hill, way above the local town, so it's castle ruins are visible for miles around like a romantic Victorian painting. This is actually where the old hillfort had been. Many castles were built on traditional hillfort sites, or sites like that, but more usually ones, that were close to water sources and such. I mean hillfort sites seem in the Iron Age to have often not been that bothered about sieges as the armies of that time were more temporary, and had to go back home to farm. There were some sites that look like they could survive sieges, but most not. Castles in medieval warfare were more usually built by lowland town sites, or rivers, or other water sources. So many more were built in new locations. After all it was likely always the case, that some settlement sites were far from a suitable hillfort site, and Iron Age people would just have to accept that. Though in the days of a castle, a structure could be built with many of the features of a hillfort, and more convenience for either the rulers or the people. I mean sometimes like in the traditional view of Norman occupation, just for the oppressive ruler's convenience. Anyhow, as time wore on, even castles were to be replaced by mansions and palaces, for the elite, and towns and cities for the mass of the population, and so like hillforts, in many cases, castles often became ruins. Which is why today so many castles are partially damaged, and almost all remaining hillforts, grown over. Though both are well commemorated by historical societies, and great efforts are made to keep them known, researched, recorded and protected. Though there has been the odd annoyance, such as a few castles and hillforts destroyed by building or quarrying. Sometimes this is a inevitable part of human life, after all we can not live in cotton wool, or wrap every piece of land up unused for ever, but sometimes no doubt it is a travesty for greed, and on the whole, even after looking at the profit and loss account economically, a undeniable net loss for humanity as a whole. So here is hoping these hillforts are protected as much as they can be, while keeping with other concerns for people, and nature, but let's hope so.

 

Hillforts must have been noted even when unused by Medieval people, but in the 18th and 19th Centuries began to be mentioned more for writings by antiquarians and such. For Wales, figures such as Thomas Pennant at Tre'r Ceiri wrote descriptions that brought them to a wider attention that just their previous semi quasi custodians, the local populace. With in later days, top archaeologists from places like the Universities of Wales, from Cardiff, to Newport, to Bangor, Lampeter, and Swansea, to Wrexham's Glyndwr, and some from outside Wales, like Oxford and Liverpool and such like getting more and more facts on the sites.

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P.S the Welsh hillforts, get a good lot of mentions in my story which you can buy of course, Well I have more pictures below, and also some descriptions of the photos. I have read the Welsh fort hillforts is bryniau. So Bryniau yn Gymraeg. But they may have been called Caer, in many cases the Welsh for a fortification area kind of thing

 

So here is a paragraph on hillforts in Welsh,

 

Mae gan Gymru gymaint o gaerau bryniau'r filltir, ag unrhyw ran arall o Ynysoedd Prydain, efallai mwy. Y bryn bryn mwyaf yng Nghymru Penycloddiau, sef rhai darlleniadau y mwyaf ym Mhrydain.