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<< Our Photo Pages >> Caerau (Cardiff) - Hillfort in Wales in South Glamorgan

Submitted by TauCeti on Wednesday, 01 July 2020  Page Views: 41629

Iron Age and Later PrehistorySite Name: Caerau (Cardiff)
Country: Wales County: South Glamorgan Type: Hillfort
Nearest Town: Cardiff  Nearest Village: Caerau
Map Ref: ST13377498  Landranger Map Number: 171
Latitude: 51.467133N  Longitude: 3.248521W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 4

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Caerau (Cardiff)
Caerau (Cardiff) submitted by TauCeti : This is the location of an Iron Age hilfort near Cardiff. Research has it that the small enclosure (in the photos) is of medieval origin, the rest is of iron Age origin, and that the present day village of Caerau is made slap bang on the remains of a Roman village and fort by the same name. a perfect example of a few thousand years of continual human presence. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Caerau Hillfort is a large triangular multivallate Iron Age hillfort occupying the western tip of an extensive ridge-top plateau in the western suburbs of Caerau and Ely, Cardiff, Wales. The old parish church, St Mary’s, and a small ringwork, almost certainly a medieval castle site probably contemporary with the church, stand within the hillfort on the north-eastern side.

Caerau Hillfort is the third largest Iron Age hillfort in Glamorgan, enclosing 51,000 m², and is surrounded by housing and the A4232. It was once a stronghold of the powerful Silurian tribe who inhabited this part of Wales before the arrival of the Romans. The steep north and south slopes of the ridge are both fortified by three massive ramparts with accompanying ditches, although these are hidden beneath trees and scrub. On the east side the hillfort defences appear to have been reduced to two ramparts in the north and one in south. There seem to have been two entrances to the hillfort, one in the middle of the east side and one west of the south corner. At the east entrance the ramparts curve round to command the approach, but there is no corresponding in turn at the south entrance. An apex in the north-west of the hillfort may be a third entrance, but it has been heavily eroded by water flowing from a spring. The interior, now pasture, was cultivated in the past, and the characteristic traces of rig and furrow agriculture can be seen on aerial photographs. It is traversed by two earthworks which may be old field boundaries, or even the remains of a smaller, earlier hillfort or even a Neolithic causewayed enclosure.

Iron Age and Romano-British pottery as well as a single fragment of a mortarium (1st century AD Roman pouring vessel) have been found from an area north-west of the southern entrance.

St Mary’s probably dates to the 13th century, and is set within an oval churchyard. Today, it is ruinous and consists of stone walls, mostly stone rubble, nave with south porch and north vestry, chancel and a tower. St Mary’s was restored c. 1885 by John Prichard, the Llandaff diocesan architect, who rebuilt the chancel, while the vestry was added in c. 1920. The church was closed in 1957 and allowed to fall into ruin, but was again restored in 1961 by Father Victor Jones. However, after Father Jones left the diocese, the church was again allowed to fall into disrepair.

To the north-east of St Mary’s church is an oval medieval ringwork measuring 35 m by 20 m. The oval enclosure is defined by a rampart and ditch with an entrance facing southwest towards St Mary's church. It is possible that it is an unrecorded castle belonging to the Bishops of Llandaff, probably contemporary with the church.

Source: Wikipedia and see also the RCAHMW site entry

Note: Do you live near this hillfort? People living near this Cardiff Iron Age hillfort are being asked to dig up a small section of their garden to contribute to an archaeological project. Cardiff people living near hillfort asked to dig up garden.
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Caerau (Cardiff)
Caerau (Cardiff) submitted by TauCeti : The ramparts of Caerau (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Caerau (Cardiff)
Caerau (Cardiff) submitted by TauCeti : The way in to the fort, going up. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Caerau (Cardiff)
Caerau (Cardiff) submitted by TauCeti : Another aspect of Caerau Hillfort (1 comment - Vote or comment on this photo)

Do not use the above information on other web sites or publications without permission of the contributor.

Nearby Images from Geograph Britain and Ireland:
ST1375 : Caerau Fort and St. Mary's by Gareth James
by Gareth James
©2011(licence)
ST1374 : Woodland Track by Alan Hughes
by Alan Hughes
©2016(licence)
ST1375 : Fallen tree by Alan Hughes
by Alan Hughes
©2015(licence)
ST1375 : St Mary's Church by Adrian Dust
by Adrian Dust
©2024(licence)
ST1375 : St. Mary's, Caerau by Gareth James
by Gareth James
©2011(licence)

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 1.0km S 184° Coed-y Cymdda Hillfort (ST13297398)
 1.8km SSE 162° Cwrt-yr-ala Hillfort (ST139733)
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 3.8km NE 34° St Teilo's Well, Llandaff* Holy Well or Sacred Spring (ST15567805)
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 5.0km N 360° Radyr Woods Burnt Mound* Artificial Mound (ST13438003)
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View more nearby sites and additional images

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"Caerau (Cardiff)" | Login/Create an Account | 12 News and Comments
  
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Re: Caerau by Pryderi on Friday, 10 July 2020
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The name 'Caerau' says it all: 'forts'.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Caerau by TheCaptain on Wednesday, 01 July 2020
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Do you live near this hillfort? People living near this Cardiff Iron Age hillfort are being asked to dig up a small section of their garden to contribute to an archaeological project.

Cardiff people living near hillfort asked to dig up garden.
[ Reply to This ]

Digging Caerau II Excavation and other local events by Andy B on Monday, 07 July 2014
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30th June – 25th July – Digging Caerau II Excavation, Caerau Hillfort

Come and get involved in community excavations at Caerau Hillfort running for four weeks this June and July. Everyone is invited to come and visit and get involved in the dig while it’s in progress to help unearth the hidden history of Caerau and Ely from 2000 years ago – there’s opportunities to:

Sign up for a FREE Live Local Learn Local course in Archaeological Skills (pre-enrolment required)
Earn Time Credits for any time you give helping with the archaeological work
Come up and visit to learn more about the amazing history of Caerau and Ely

The dig will be taking place in the field next to St Mary’s Church. The dig will be open to visitors 10am-4pm Tuesday to Saturday.

1st – 2nd July – Connected Communities Fetival, St David’s Conference Centre, Cardiff Bay

The CAER Team will have a stand at the Connected Communities Festival (a festival celebrating heritage projects based in local communities). The CAER Stand includes an interactive ‘virtual’ dig that brings the off-site hillfort excavation to the heart of the Connected Communities Festival. There will be a live daily ‘CAER TV’ Skype broadcast from the site at Caerau, enabling visitors to interact directly with the archaeologists and participants and ask questions about the finds. Visitors will also be able to participate in the experience of archaeological research at the Stand’s ‘CAER Finds Desk’ where they will have the opportunity to work alongside community members processing archaeological finds from the excavation. A shuttle bus to Caerau Hillfort excavations and the CAER exhibition at St Fagans National History Museum will be available every 40 minutes from Caerau Hillfort and St David’s Conference Centre for the duration of the Connected Communities Festival.

1st – 2nd July – Exhibition: Digging the Past | Photos and Iolo – Images Objects and Riddles from Caerau & Ely, St Fagans National History Museum

An interactive exhibition designed and co-produced for the CAER Heritage by artist Paul Evans and the communities of Caerau and Ely. The exhibition stars Iolo the bard and hundreds of photos of Caerau and Ely, past and present. See if you can find Iolo in the pictures – and use riddles designed by local schools to guess what he has hidden in his bag. If successful a CAER project exhibition photobook will be your reward!

Exhibition open to visitors from 10am-4pm. A shuttle bus will be available every 40 minutes from Caerau Hillfort.

2nd July – Caeraustock Film Screenings(1-2pm)

During the 2013 Digging Caerau excavations, local filmmaker, Viv Thomas, filmed every aspect of this community dig and interviewed many participants and visitors. Viv has many hours of footage and, together with the CAER Project team, he has established a collaborative collective which has co-produced a series of interlinked ‘viral’ short films with a range of local community groups. The films present a range of creative interpretations of Viv’s extensive footage from different perspectives. Entitled collectively as Caeraustock, the films will be screened simultaneously during the Connected Communities Festival to audiences across three locations: within Caerau hillfort, at St Fagans National History Museum and at the St David’s Conference Centre.

19th July – The Big Lunch at the Big Dig

Archaeology is a great way to bring people together and what better way to spend a Saturday is there than to come together with your neighbours, visit the Big Dig, get involved in lots of fun activities and eat some great food!? On Saturday 19th July we organising a Big Lunch in St Mary’s Field. The Big Lunch is a very simple idea from the Eden Project. The aim is to get as many people as possible across the whole of the UK to have lunch with their neighbours in a simple act o

Read the rest of this post...
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Caerau excavation update by Andy B on Monday, 07 July 2014
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The Caerau hill fort near Ely is thought to have been occupied from the 5th Century BC by the Silurian tribe.

A dig last year involving 1,000 people found its use may have continued into the late Roman era or even later.

The Caerau And Ely Rediscovering Heritage (Caer) Project runs until 25 July.

Organisers say work on the site since 2011 has helped rewrite the history of early Cardiff, revealing an early occupation date for a hill fort with "massive" ramparts.

Last year's excavations revealed:

Five large Iron Age roundhouses, a roadway, extensive assemblages of Iron-age and Roman pottery and a decorated Iron Age glass bead

Evidence showing occupation at the site stretched from the Bronze Age through to the late Roman era and beyond

Burnt seeds and well-preserved animal bones which show the prehistoric occupants of Cardiff kept cattle, sheep, pigs and horses and grew oats, barley and wheat

Caer Heritage Project co-director Olly Davis said: "During the 2013 dig, more than 1,000 local people visited the dig while it was happening, and 120 more were directly involved in the archaeological work.

"Our challenge this year is to attract twice as many visitors and to get the people of South Wales to value this amazing site and celebrate the remarkable communities which live in its shadow."

More at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-28087451
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Hillfort on our Doorstep, St Fagans National History Museum 12 & 13 Jan by Andy B on Monday, 31 December 2012
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Hillfort on our Doorstep
12 & 13 Jan, 12pm - 1pm & 2 - 3pm
St Fagans: National History Museum
Celtic Village

The Caerau Hillfort stood to the south-east of St Fagans. Come and find out more about life in one of the most powerful Iron Age settlements in South Wales.

http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?event_id=6102
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Photos of the Caerau Open Day and Time Team Dig by Andy B on Monday, 30 April 2012
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The CAER Heritage Project web site (not much there at the moment)
http://caerheritageproject.com/

but lots of photos from their recent Open Day and Time Team Dig on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/CAERHeritageProject/photos
[ Reply to This ]

Time Team discovers 3,000 years of history at Cardiff site by Andy B on Monday, 30 April 2012
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Archaeologists from Channel 4 show Time Team have discovered 3,000-year-old homes and artefacts on the site of an Iron Age hillfort in Cardiff.

The show’s experts descended on the ancient site at Caerau Hill, off Church Road in Caerau, to film an episode of the hit series.

The team spent three days working at the site with presenter Tony Robinson saying they had found a “whole spaghetti bolognese” of ditches, circles, roundhouses and enclosures at the site.

He said investigators had found a 3,000-year-old saddlequern tool and pieces of an Iron Age pot which they were able to put back together and almost reconstitute.

“That’s very, very rare. We can put it together and make a tiny little pot that would have been created by hand,” said Robinson. It “may be the rarest example in South Wales” of such a discovery.

The dig at the Caerau site had been “incredibly successful,” he added.

The episode of Time Team is expected to be aired in 2013.

More at
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2012/04/21/time-team-discovers-3-000-years-of-history-at-cardiff-site-91466-30804706/

[ Reply to This ]
    Re: Time Team discovers 3,000 years of history at Cardiff site by Anonymous on Wednesday, 06 May 2015
    On the programme of this Time Team dig, the name 'Caerau' was assumed to be a corruption of a Welsh word for fort. I have trouble with seeing any resemblance between the two. I played on the smaller hill fort(north of the time team site) as a child (I'm 76)& there was a spring there. I also came across an very old map online some years ago, which I can no longer find, which had 'cayre' on it. That is Latin for 'sacred', & as springs were sacred to the celts as a whole, I think this was mistakenly converted to a Welsh approximation. We always pronounced it the same as the Latin, though in later years other people pronounced it differently. I was born 1/4 of a mile from Caerau village & my Aunt was married in St.Mary of the Virgin church before it was vandalised.I loved that church & place. I now live in Tasmania.
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A large feature section on Time Team Digital on the hillfort dig by Andy B on Monday, 30 April 2012
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A large feature section on Time Team Digital on the hillfort dig, including a word with Cardiff University's David Wyatt regarding the CAER Heritage project

http://www.timeteamdigital.com/digs/hillfort.html
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Re: Caerau by Anonymous on Thursday, 05 January 2012
Just discovered this website - seems like a 'good thing', congrats to organisers.
I had cause to visit/investigate Caerau hillfort 10 years or so age, when a member of Cardiff City Farm Trust - site was suggested as a possible alternative to our then site.
The following remarks are from my memory of a phone conversation with my archaeology consultant at the time - taken from his reference books.
The hillfort dates to pre-Roman Iron Age, is multi-vallate - ie more than 1 bank-and-ditch. These surround the entire open space, are only visible if you go to the edge & look down into the woods.
The small ringwork near the Church is a presumed 'Dark Age' re-occupation of the site in post-Roman period.
'Lumps and bumps' near the centre of the open space on the hilltop are remains of an abandoned Mediaeval village, linked to the Church, which was ruinous, vandalised when I visited c2000.
Hillfort possibly occupied by a local aristocratic family, who moved to Ely villa in Roman period, then back to the fort in post-Roman?
Needless to say, the site was rejected as a possible alt City Farm site!
I'll try & get up there, take some photos when the weather picks up a bit.
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Re: Caerau by TauCeti on Friday, 02 January 2009
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Actually it is rather more likely that this site is of an ancient farm, rather than hillfort. but that is debatable.
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Re: Caerau by TauCeti on Sunday, 22 October 2006
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Well, I find it amazing that within the city limits there are such prehistoric remains readily visitable...

Having checked on Archeologia Cambrensis turned out that the shown enclosure is thought to be medieval, which I find preposterous, but am no expert.

The view on photo 4 is of Cardiff in a roughly E direction, but the city centre is not visible as it is around the corner, literally.

Also that the village of Caerau nearby is the direct descendant of the Roman village, with a fort there, which I have not found yet; but going through the village itself the grid pattern is evident, and it "feels" old.....

more to come soon..... :O)
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