Moel y Gaer, Rhosesmor

Moel y Gaer is an Iron Age hillfort located on a summit at the southern end of Halkyn Mountain, overlooking the village of Rhosesmor, Flintshire [1]. It is a well-preserved hillfort overlooking the Dee Estuary [1]. Excavations in the early 1970s revealed a sequence of defensive structures made of timber and several phases of building work inside the ramparts [1]. Excavations suggest that the site was occupied, perhaps sporadically, from the Neolithic period to sometime before the Roman conquest of the area [1]. Remains of a timber long house on the hill summit have been dated to the third millennium BC and may represent the earliest human occupation of the region [1]. Defensive construction at the site began around the late seventh century BC, and at first consisted of a timber palisade enclosing a settlement of timber roundhouses [1]. The palisade was later replaced by a stone-and-earth rampart and a ditch [1].