Pen Dinas

DTM- (Digital Terrain Model, i.e. No buildings or foliage) Overlooking the town of Aberystwyth from the south with commanding views over the sea lies the twin summit contour hillfort, Pen Dinas. The main site is the southern multivallate component with the north site being the univallate. Major excavations in the 1930s found the following: 1st Phase of occupation on north site which was subsequently abandoned. 2nd Phase on southern summit with elaborate gates and stone walled rampart and outer ditch. Fort burnt down and abandoned. 3rd Phase when southern fort re occupied with new defences. 4th Phase connected isthmus to both sites. (circa 40-20BC) Isthmus stone gate, apparently 2 stories high & crossed by a wooden bridge supported on four massive timber posts constructed at this point. In 1993 M. Avery wrote the definitive description. Interiors ploughed out in antiquity, but some hut platforms are still extant clustered around the south gate. Finds include an Iron age jar dated to 100BC along with a fine glass bead, spindle whorls, loom weights, a slingshot cache, a Neolithic stone axe, a Bonze age palstave (axe) & triangular barbed and tanged arrowhead. Late Roman coin circa 307 AD found in 1930 in a molehill on southern fort. An undated sword found on lower slopes in the 1960s, now lost. Also, a spearhead and a medieval coin were recorded. In 1999 a bracken fire in the southern site allowed the recovery of additional slingstones. (Scheduled monument) Iron Age tribal association (conjecture based on location): Demetae *Possible age range 2000-2700BP (Before present)