More information : (SJ 23232897) Coed-y-Caer (NR). (1)
A small oval camp standing on the highest point of a hill 600
feet above the River Cynllaith. The original rampart is for the
most part destroyed, the two remaining portions are on the north
and south-east, and 2-3 ft high. At the south-western curve are the
mutilated remains of a ditch. (2)
Small contour fort with tumbled drystone inner rampart. Site cut
by later boundaries and possible site of cottage shooting lodge
on highest point. (3)
A univallate contour hillfort enclosing 1 1/2 acres. A break in the
stone rampart in the west is probably the original entrance.
There is a ditch and outer rampart in the south-west where the
natural defences are weakest. The fort has been mutilated by
landscaping.
Published survey (25") revised. (4)
Coed-y-Gaer, name confirmed by the farmer at Pentregaeruchaf, is
an oval-shaped, enclosure of Iron Age date, occupying the summit
of a steep-sided, narrow, rocky ridge, within wood-land, at about
1150 feet above OD.
The work measures internally, 140.om north-east to south-west,
by 46.0m transversely at the widest point. The defences comprise
a rampart of loose stone and small boulders, which, where best
preserved on the south-east measures 6.0m in width, and over 1.2m
in height internally, but for much of the circuit, the stone has
tumbled and spread down the slopes, up to 45o on the north-west,
and lies in a band up to 10.0m-12.0m in width, and less than 0.3m
in height internally. At the south-west end, above less-steep
slopes onto a lower extension of the ridge, is an outer bank of
stone measuring 8.0m in width, and 1.0m in height internally. At
the west end of this bank is a simple-cut, original entrance
through the rampart, at the edge of the very steep slopes of the
north-west side. A graded path has been cut obliquely across the
rampart, behind the outer bank, giving access from below to a
stone-built, 19th century Gothick-style shooting lodge or summer
house, now roofless and ruinous, which stands upon the highest
point of the ridge, just within the enclosure, at the south-west
end.
No evidence of internal occupation was found within the enclosure
which is more correctly a defended settlement than a fort.
1:2500 survey revision of 24 11 71 still correct. (5)
SJ 232290 Coed-y-Gaer hillfort. Scheduled. (6)
SJ 232 290. Coed y Gaer, Oswestry. Listed in gazetteer as a multivallate hillfort covering 0.48ha. (7)
The hillfort is visible as an incomplete oval earthwork on aerial photographs, and has been mapped by RCHME's Marches Uplands Mapping Project. The hunting lodge was not recorded by the aerial photographic mapping survey. (9-10) |