Excavations at Caerau Ancient Village, Clynnog, Caernarvonshire, 1933 and 1934

Abstract

Mynydd Craig-goch, the westernmost height of a rocky ridge of the Snowdon mountains, slopes gently down to a watershed at the head of the Afon Dwyfach, over which run the railway and the main road from Criccieth and Portmadoc to Caernarvon. Between the ninth and tenth milestones from Caernarvon, immediately to the east of the road and thus on the lowest part of the mountain slope, there lie the remains of a most extensive primitive agricultural settlement. It is not marked on the Ordnance Survey map (6 in. 26 NE.), but was known locally, and the farm within which most of it lies bears the significant name Caerau. Its recognition as a site of great possibilities on account of its excellent state of preservation is due to Mr. W. J. Hemp, F.S.A. The settlement must originally have extended north and south for a distance of about half a mile. It may, indeed, have been contiguous with other settlements on the north and north-west, thus forming part of a large area of cultivated land, since there exists in excellent preservation a house or hut-group of the same type with at least one typical field about one mile to the west on the farm of Cefn Graianog. This point, however, cannot now be determined on account of more recent agricultural developments around the farm of Bodychain.