A map of the Carningli Hillfort
Thinking about my last post, I was reminded that Carningli is not just a place of bluestones and literary characters, but also a place of great prehistoric significance. The Iron Age hillfort is of course the most prominent feature -- but there are also scores of other traces of prehistoric habitation -- old stone walls and enclosures, partly finished earthworks, hut circles apparently dating from the Bronze Age, ancient trackways, enclosures and paddocks, sheep folds, drainage ditches and traces of old quarrying activity. Many of these features are described in more detail in my little book called "Carningli - Land and People" and published a couple of years ago.
2 comments:
I was standing in the "village" section of the hillfort last week. The wind was blowing grey cloud over the summit and it struck me it must have been a pretty grim place to live, particularly during the winter storms. The bilberries growing in the hut circles were wonderful though....
SSShhh! Don't let on about the bilberries! We had a wonderful Carningli bilberry crumble the other day -- delicious!
As for the tribespeople, I have a theory that they didn't spend the winters up there. Much too exposed. I think this was a summer village -- occupied maybe by the same tribe that spent the winters at Castell Henllys? That's a nice thought -- but impossible to prove.
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