Craig Ty Isaf Camp

Description

Small Iron Age promontory fort which displays similarities with the multivallate Norman castle-ringwork at Dinas Powys. Included in Spurgeon list of reject castle sites.

The monument comprises the remains of a hillfort, which probably dates to the Iron Age period (c. 800 BC - AD 74, the Roman conquest of Wales). Hillforts are usually located on hilltops and surrounded by a single or multiple earthworks of massive proportions. Hillforts must have formed symbols of power within the landscape, while their function may have had as much to do with ostentation and display as defence. The hillfort at Craig Ty-Isaf is located at 210m above OD on the south-west slopes of Mynydd y Gaer, overlooking Baglan. A steep-sided narrow spur of land has been utilised as the site of a small but strong fortification. The interior, which falls fairly steeply both towards the western tip of the spur and from the north to south has been protected by a rubble wall or bank, following the complete circuit, to form an oval enclosure of about 65m east to west by 40m. The only entrance, at least in the final form of the defences, was towards the tip of the spur, where there is a gap about 3m wide and the ends of the ramparts are thicker. There is another gap at the eastern end of the enclosure. At the eastern end, across the easier approach, there are three ramparts, the innermost being the rubble wall. (Scheduling Report)