Caer Bach Hill Fort, Hut Circle, and Cairns, Llangelynin

Caer Bach is a small prehistoric hill fort situated at the end of Tal y Fan, looking out over Dyffryn Conwy, with good views up and down the valley. It can be easily approached by driving up the road to Llangelynin Old Church and parking on the small concrete area there, then walking along the footpaths to its location. During this current lockdown, though, I walked from home up to the west end of Tal y Fan, and along the higher footpath past Pen y Ffridd to the fort at the east end of the mountain.

Often there are Carneddau ponies grazing about the fort's sides, along with the ubiquitous Welsh mountain sheep. The fort is at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7442 7297.

A very short panorama from the fort can be seen here. 

Caer Bach looks almost like an entirely human-made mound on the land, but I think it's mostly human sculpting of a pre-existing rise. Coflein lists the fort as 'prehistoric,' but doesn't narrow this date down at all. Heneb mentions that a post-Roman date may be possible, which would mean it was later than the fort at Pen y Gaer, and it would have been Pen y Gaer and Cerrig y Ddinas guarding the broad entrance to Bwlch y Ddeufaen.

Approaching the fort from the south west, the ditch and bank are more just a shallow platform and slope. 

I have grown up very familiar with the larger iron age hill fort, Pen y Gaer, on the other side of the entrance to the pass of Bwlch y Ddeufaen, but it was only recently that I found out this little place existed. It's not obvious on the hill like Pen y Gaer. Instead of crowning the top of a hill it sits on a tiny rise on the land between higher peaks, and is very hard to pick out on the skyline from a distance.

Looking back to the north west, the contours of rise-plateau-rise are fairly easy to see. The east end of Tal y Fan rises up behind the fort.

 

Coflein says the entrance to the fort is on the south side, and I think this is probably it. This corresponds with the entrance marked on the diagram on the Heneb site.

Standing in the fort entrance, looking towards the rocky hill of Craig Celynin in the east. A little further east, Cerrig y Ddinas is an iron age hill fort, atop another rocky hill.

The remains of the much robbed out inner wall.

The place is scattered with quite a few rocks and boulders, some of which might be the natural bedrock coming through. I wonder about the human hands that would have brushed over these rocks, the children who climbed on them. 

This single large recumbent stone gives me similar feelings. I like to sit here thinking that a few thousand years ago people may have sat here too, talking together. Perhaps the view wouldn't have been the same when the defensive wall was intact, but the stone can't have changed much. 

Looking south up the valley, with the Afon Conwy a silver line in the distance. 

 

Perhaps the larger stones in this wall have been robbed out to help build the stone walls that thread across the landscape. The wall is described by Coflein as being between 4-5 metres wide, and it must have taken a huge amount of time and effort to build. I wonder how long the wall stood after the place was abandoned. 

 

Looking across the top of the hill fort to the east end of Tal y Fan. Coflein states that a 'hut circle can be traced against the inner face of the NW side of the inner enclosure,' but I haven't been able to make it out. It is shown in the diagram on the Heneb site.

The north side of the fort is defended with a bank and ditch which are still very clear. Coflein says that the bank reaches a maximum height of ten feet.

Looking north-east, the rocky hill of Craig Celynin rises up to partly block the view of the valley. Beyond Craig Celynin is the rather smaller hill of Cerrig y Ddinas, with its iron age fort remnants. I don't know why the peoples who built the two forts decided not to use Craig Celynin for their base. Perhaps Caer Bach is less exposed. Perhaps it's more strategically placed. Cerrig y Ddinas, certainly, is in a great place looking right out over the valley, the last great hump of rock before the land plunges to the valley floor, like Pen y Gaer on the other side of this wide opening to the Bwlch y Ddeufaen pass through the mountains. 

Down in the ditch behind Caer Bach, looking north-east. Probably a certain amount of the banks on either side have eroded down into the ditch, so originally the place would have been more formidable to attack. Get past the ditch and bank and you still have the stone wall to storm. In the post-Roman era, if this is the date of the fort, perhaps they would have been defending themselves against other local people, or perhaps against the first incursions of Scandinavians and Germanic peoples that began as a result of general westward migration through Europe.

Looking south-west from the same place. The ditch becomes a little more shallow and eventually smooths out as you walk around to the front of the fort. Coflein mentions a 13th-14th century mediaeval house platform in poor condition cut into the edge of the fort on the south west side, but I didn't look for evidence of this. Another mediaeval house platform is listed slightly to the north east of the fort.

 

There is a hut circle here outside the fort, on the south west side, which I have found in the past, but couldn't make out today, in the bitter cold.

Looking down on Caer Bach from a little further up the slope of Tal y Fan. 

On another walk, in August 2020, I did find the hut circle outside Caer Bach, and spent some time dotting the slightly raised remains with sheep's wool to make it more visible. The circle is marked on Coflein as being at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7436 7293, and classed as Roman, Iron Age, which could make it a little earlier than the fort if the Heneb date suggestion is correct. It is just visible as a faint ring in satellite photos. 

A wide angle shot of the hut circle, looking north. 

The rim around the back of the hut circle can be made out raised above the interior, in the top third of this photo, with the curve coming around into the foreground to the right.

From the edge of the hill fort, the hut circle, looking west. 

The hut circle can just be made out to the middle left of the photo, with the hill fort rising above it to the right. 

This seems to be the entrance into the hut, a distinct dip in the rim. 

Without the sheep's wool the site is much harder to see. 

To the north of the fort Coflein mentions a Bronze Age kerbed cairn, but I haven't looked for this.

 

A little way west from the fort, just to the south of the track towards Cae Coch and Bwlch y Ddeufaen, are four prehistoric cairns. They are arranged parallel to the track, three in a row, and one standing a little north of them, closer to the track, directly in front of the centre cairn. The grid reference of the centre cairn is SH 7430 7260. I think this is the Coflein reference, although the site mentions five cairns and the rather imprecise grid reference of SH 742 726 centres a little north of the track. The site dates them as Bronze Age, but doesn't specify a purpose to the cairns.

On the Megalithic Portal the cairns are named, Ddwyffrwd Cairns, and characterised as a barrow cemetery.

This western cairn is the easiest to see as a slight rise and parch mark under the grass. The second and third are just visible in this photo beyond and to the left, under patches of low gorse.

The westernmost cairn again. 

The central cairn has small gorse bushes on it but is still quite easy to see. 

The third, easternmost cairn, is the hardest to make out under its crown of gorse. 

Looking south west across the central cairn.

The fourth cairn, closer to the track, is a little like the first, bare of gorse and just visible as a little discoloured rise in the land.