Welsh Journals

EXCAVATIONS AT BREIDDIN1 HILL CAMP, MONTGOMERY- SHIRE, 1933-35. By B. H. ST. J. O'NEIL, M.A., F.S.A. 1. DESCRIPTION OF SITE. THE Breiddin Hills are conspicuously situated on the right bank of the River Severn at the point where it flows out of the hill country of Wales into the plain of north-west Shropshire. About midway between Shrewsbury and Welshpool and some ten miles south of Oswestry, they are a familiar sight to travellers from the east, whether by rail or road, on their way to many parts of Central and North Wales. They are the more noticeable for a column erected on the northernmost ridge of the hills in memory of Admiral Rodney. Originally constructed in 1781, at the expense of the gentlemen of Montgomeryshire and Shropshire, this pillar has thrice been repaired, in 1847, 1896, and 1934. It is now no longer surmounted by a copper sphere. These hills are of volcanic origin for the most part their geology has recently been studied and published anew in the Geological Survey's regional geological handbook, The Welsh Borderland (R. W. Pocock and T. H. Whitehead), p. 45. The rock below the excavated sites is dolerite. There are three hill-forts of Early Iron Age character on the Breiddin Hills: Bausley Hill Camp, Cefn Castell on Middletown Hill, and the large camp on Breiddin Hill proper, which the O.S. map (25" XVI.6., 1902 edition) marks as Intrenchments," and which is the subject of this paper. The first relies on the natural defence of a cliff on the southern side, but is defended on the other sides by two or more banks and ditches. These sometimes assume the character of scarps and berms, especially at the northern angle where the defence is fourfold and complicated. There is a single simple entrance at the western end close to, but not actually adjacent to, the cliff. Cefn y Castell has a single bank and ditch (or berm) encircling the hill-top and at each end of the ridge (north-east and south-west) a sharply incurved entrance. Beyond each of these entrances and somewhat down the slope there is a second bank 1 Sir John Lloyd confirms this as the correct form.