CASTELL HENLLYS TRAINING EXCAVATION July 12 - August 9 2003

Pembrokeshire, Wales

latest Award just won at the BA Festival of Science 2002
The project director, Harold Mytum, has just won an award for the Presentation of Heritage Research, recognising the Castell Henllys Project's public interest and academic quality. Sponsored by the Royal Archaeological Institute and English Heritage, this lecture prize reflects the quality of experience gained by those participating at Castell Henllys.

[Photograph] The site is an Iron Age inland promontory fort and adjacent Romano-British farmstead, with some evidence for post-Roman activity also. Much of the Iron Age fort has been examined, but highly exciting work continues on the main defences, which have uncovered unexpected evidence for ritual activity and iron working during 2002. We will be carrying out further investigations on the defences in 2003, and also on the Iron Age and Roman period farmstead lying just outside the main fort, where a new area has been opened up for investigation.

The training excavation is designed for British and EU students who wish to experience excavation first hand. Older school children and University students form the majority, but other interested people are welcome also. No prior knowledge of archaeology is required. Those with some experience are also very welcome, and we will ensure that you widen and deepen your range of field skills.

Many students have successfully included their experience on their University UCCA applications. Others have used their achievements at the site to count towards Duke of Edinburgh Gold awards. Some students have attended the training excavation to gain work experience.

Those overseas students interested in the credit-bearing Castell Henllys Field School , including the fieldwork in Ireland, can read details elsewhere.

The excavations are the first to be undertaken on any scale on an inland promontory fort, and indeed Castell Henllys is one of the most intensively studied hillforts in Britain. The entrance is one of the most complex revealed, and other features of the defences (at present still under excavation) are also most unusual. The site is also unique in having reconstructed timber roundhouses built on the exact locations of the original Iron Age ones, as far as possible using the same methods and materials. The site is managed by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. It is open to the public, and there is a National Park web site with pictures and information for visitors and school visits. [Photograph]

LOCATION

Castell Henllys lies on the site of the valley of the Gwaun, a tributory of the River Nevern which enters the sea at Newport, five miles from the site. Newport in north Pembrokeshire is a small town, planned by the Normans and still possessing medieval castle and church. It is overlooked by Carn Ingli, a part of the Preceli mountain range, on top of which is a fort of unknown date. many other important archaeological sites are in the vicinity of Castell Henllys, including the post-Roman inscribed stones and cross at Nevern Church, motte and bailey castle also at Nevern, Iron Age forts at Foel Trigarn and Carn Alw, and megalithic monuments at Pentre Ifan and outside Newport. These are all visited by those on the excavation, if they so wish.

Castell Henllys is reached by train to Fishguard. The Saturday day-time train will be met by the minibus; at other times (except Sundays) there are buses to Fishguard and from there towards Cardigan. The bus will drop you off at the top of a small road which is signposted to the site. To reach the site by car is also easy; Castell Henllys is signposted off the main Cardigan to Fishguard road.

The camp site is within walking distance of the excavation. It has simple shower and toilet facilities, and meals are served in a large tent. All students assist the full time cook on a weekly rota basis with duties such as helping to prepare food and washing up. There is a small shop on the camp site which sells sweets, snacks and drinks. The nearest pub is 20 minutes walk away, where there is also a public telephone.

THE EXCAVATION

[Photograph]The excavation is a training excavation, directed by Harold Mytum and with Ken Murphy from Cambria Archaeology (formerly the Dyfed Archaeological Trust) as assistant director. It takes a mixture of York students from all years, university students from other British universities, foreign students, those still at school, and some mature students or those just interested in learning about excavation. There are normally 30-40 people on the excavation at any one time.

The working day is 9 am to 5.30 pm, with a morning and afternoon break and a 50 minute lunch break. We work six days a week, with Saturdays off, and a 10 am start on Sundays. Arrangements are made for those who wish to attend church on Sundays.

[Photograph] Training is given in a range of tasks. A variety of excavation techniques are taught and practiced, both with regard to layers and individual features such as post holes, hearths and walls. The recording processes involving forms and drawings - plans and sections - are also taught to all. The 3D recording of finds and the use of level on site for other surveying functions is also taught. There is some opportunity for finds and records processing, and also for wet sieving and flotation (a large amount of material has already been recovered which sheds light on the environment and economy and this programme is an important part of the research project).

[Photograph]Students will work on both the Iron Age and Romano-British sites. In 2003, excavations will continue on the Iron Age defences and buildings immediately inside them in the north-eastern part of the fort. The full sequence of monumental changes to this area will then be understood. In addition, occupation and craft activity inside the defences at the southernmost part of the fort will also be studied.

[Photograph] One of the most unusual features at Castell Henllys is the chevaux-de-frise, an arrangement of small upright stones designed to slow down attackers to the fort. This has been uncovered by removing a later Iron Age bank down to the original ground surface. The chevaux-de-frise is adjacent to an outer entrance to the fort which will be further excavated in 2003.

In the Romano-British site a newly discovered ditch will be further investigated, and another part of the extensive Romano-British settlement will be excavated. Here, a complex and important series of layers built up during the site's occupation. They have been unusually well protected by soil that has washed down from the defences, and so many interesting discoveries are expected.

There will be an opportunity to work on a historic site at Henllys Farm, where a 16th- to 19th-century demolished manor house has been located. This was the most important houses in the region in the 16th and 17th centuries, and excavations so far have revealed well preserved walling, cobbled surfaces and other deposits. Houses of such status have rarely been excavated in Britain, and this is a wonderful opportunity to carry out work on a gentry house. It was once the home of George Owen, the 'father of geology' and an important Elizabethan antiquarian, and this work provides a contrast to the excavations on the earlier Iron Age and Roman period sites at Castell Henllys.

FURTHER READING

An interim report on the work so far is available. A report can also be read in H Mytum, 'Castell Henllys', Current Archaeology 161 (February 1999), 164-172.
For the region as a whole in the Iron Age and Roman period, see G Williams in Antiquaries Journal 1988; G. Williams and H. Mytum 1998, Llawhaden, Dyfed: excavations on a group of small defended enclosures, 1980-4. Oxford, British Archaeological Reports British Series 275; and B Cunliffe 1991, Iron Age Communities in Britain, where there is a section on west Wales.

For the historic site of Henllys Farm, see the Pembrokeshire Historic Sites Project web page where there is an account of the site, and other research we are acrrying out in the area.

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Information provided by HCM; last updated September 2002