Dinas Emrys

Dinas Emrys (Welsh for 'Emrys's city') is a rocky and wooded hillock near Beddgelert in Gwynedd, north-west Wales [1]. Rising some 76 m above the floor of the Glaslyn river valley, it overlooks the southern end of Llyn Dinas in Snowdonia [1]. Little remains of the structures that once stood on the hill [1]. Such remains as are visible today, including three series of ramparts and other walls and some foundations, mostly date to the Middle Ages [1]. Excavations in 1910 and 1954–56 revealed several periods of habitation at the site [1]. According to legend, when Vortigern fled into Wales to escape the Anglo-Saxon invaders, he chose this lofty hillfort as the site for his royal retreat [1].