Another great Bing image -- this one is the Carn Ffoi or Carnffoi hillfort, across the common from Carningli. It's small and very simple, but perfectly formed.......
There is a local legend that it was actually occupied in the Age of the saints by an Irish chieftain and his gang of brigands. That would indicate occupation as late as about 500 AD -- that seems perfectly feasible. Some of these hillforts may also have been occupied by vagrants as late as the Middle Ages.
The latest edition, September 2016 Issue 318, of Current Archaeology has a feature by Dr Toby Driver on Cardigan Bay hillforts, pages 12 to 19. Says there are over 100 atypical hillforts in the mid - Wales landscape. What was their purpose - defence or display. He also has a new book out, The Hillforts of Cardigan Bay, Logastan Press, £12.95. Single issues of magazine cost £5.50.
ReplyDeleteAlex Gee: Would it not also be possible that the forts were of use after 793 A.D. the date of the first Viking raid on Lindisfarne, shortly followed by Viking incursions into and eventual dominance of the Irish Sea?
ReplyDeleteI have read that the "ey" (meaning Island) ending of Anglesey, Ramsey and Caldey is of Scandinavian origin. As is the Toponym "Kullen" meaning hill.
It's possible -- the Vikings are known to have visited Pembs -- there is a legend of a fleet led by Hubba the Viking overwintering in Milford Haven. And yes, there are plenty of Viking names all around the Pembs coast.
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