The Hill of the Three Cairns

Deep within the Preseli Hills of Wales lies a hillfort known as Foel Drygarn, or the 'Hill of the Three Cairns'. This archaeological site is located about 1.5 miles west of the village of Crymych in Pembrokeshire. The hill is the furthest east of the Preseli Hills and can be seen from miles around, having served as a probably important centre in its time.

An inner defence on the summit encloses 1.2 hectares, with later defences built on the north and east side. These single ramparts are made of dry stone and earth, with traces of a ditch outside the inner rampart. Within the inner defence are three stone cairns, regarded as Bronze Age burial mounds. The builders of the fort evidently respected their Bronze Age predecessors, as the cairns were not plundered for stone.

There are at least 227 hut platforms within the fort, representing a long period of occupation where not all dwellings were in use at the same time. In 1899, archaeologist Sabine Baring-Gould excavated the site and found Iron Age and Roman pottery, glass beads, and many sling stones.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons