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Pen Dinas Hill Fort Site
The story
History of Pen Dinas Hill Fort Site
Pen Dinas () is a large hill in Penparcau, on the coast of Ceredigion, Wales, (just south of Aberystwyth) upon which an extensive Iron Age, Celtic hillfort is situated.
United Kingdom
- Country
- United Kingdom
- UNESCO
- —
- Coordinates
- 52.402, -4.082
In depth
The fuller history
The name is more correctly 'Dinas Maelor', this could be translated into English as 'Maelor's Fort' or 'Maelor's City'. Tradition refers to it as being the fort of the giant Maelor Gawr. Pen Dinas strictly speaking only refers to the highest point, 'Pen y Dinas' or 'Head of the Citadel', (upon which the Wellington Monument now stands). The southern summit is also where, in the Bronze Age, a burial mound was erected.
The name Maelor survives in local legend and refers to the fields directly south of Pen Dinas in the valley east of Tan-y-Bwlch as Maelorddin (City of Maelor) or more accurately Caerau Maelorddin meaning (Fields of the City of Maelor.
Key dates
- 1933Archaeological excavations, directed by Professor Daryll Forde between 1933 and 1937, found fragments of a pottery vessel of a type dating to about 100 BC, beads, loom weights and fragments of corroded iron and bronze.
- 1972This may indicate that Pen Dinas was constructed by people moving into this area from the east at around 300 BC (Stanford, 1972).
Historical summary drawn from Wikipedia. Read the full article.
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