IRON AGE WALES IN A MODERN NATION: RETHINKING WELSH HILLFORTS

Research and interest in the Iron Age hillforts of Wales has seen something of a resurgence in the last twenty years, with new and exciting ways of interpreting these monuments emerging. From the Late Bronze Age through to the Roman period and beyond, more than 2000 hillforts and defended farmsteads were built across Wales signalling new approaches to communal living in the first millennium BC. Hillforts were cleverly designed, their architecture embodying elements of competitive display as well as standing as effective deterrents to attack. They were built and re-built, harnessing networks of debt and obligation. Along the Welsh Borderlands, vast hillforts commanded iconic locations, presiding over a strongly regional landscape linked by vibrant networks of exchange and communication. This paper examines the new ideas emerging about Welsh hillforts and their landscapes, and how these have developed our understanding of the Iron Age communities of Wales. It questions how visible these hillforts are to the people of modern Wales, and how the next generation might engage more widely with this critical period of Welsh (pre) history. It was originally delivered as the June Gruffydd memorial lecture to the Cymmrodorion on 22nd February 2024 in London.

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