Let’s start our fascinating trip. The first point of our destination is Dinas Powys hill fort. This place amazes with its history and age. This hill fort is dated to the British Iron Age. This site was excavated by the team of archeologists with Leslie Alcock at the head from 1954 to 1958. Leslie Alcock decided to name this place of interest in favor of the neighborhood village, he said: “it therefore seemed appropriate by a kind of back-formation to restore the village name to” the fortifications (Alcock 1963, p. 1). This site was firstly marked on the Ordnance Survey’s one inch map as Beili Castell. Alcock considered this name “to have no real justification” (Alcock 1963, p. 6). The first archeologist who was interested in this place of interest was Mortimer Wheeler who produced a plan of excavating of the hill fort for the National Museum of Wales. Archaeologists Dr. V. E. Nash-Williams, Sir Cyril Fox and Dr. H. N. Savoy chose the best place for training the students studied at the department of archeology of University College, Cardiff and this suitable place for training was the Dinas Powys (Addyman 1966). The archeologists decided to leave some areas unexcavated explaining this fact that “Sufficient areas have been left unexcavated for future workers to have some chance of testing both the observation of facts and the hypotheses presented” (Alcock 1963, p. 15). Since those excavations, Dynas Powys hill fort has become the most visited place of interest in Wales.
The next place of interest in Wales is Chepstow Castle. This castle is considered to be the oldest stone fortification in Britain belonging to Post-Roman period. This fortification is dated to 1067 when William the Conquer was in power. There is also a presupposition that William l commissioned the great tower of Chepstow Castle during his visit in 1081. The unaltered castle was passed to William Marshal in 1189 who started to remodel it with revolutionary designs. The construction of Chepstow Gateway, a brand new tower, the lower and middle bailey defences were his achievements in the remodeling of Chepstow Castle. Later, Roger Bigor used Chepstow as a palatial fortress and he built a lot of service rooms and accommodation. More than that, the extension of the top storey and massive Martin’s tower at the South East corner were constructed under his control. The Castle was considerably repaired after the Civil War. Chepstow’s Great Hall is the oldest stone castle in Britain which has been survived till our days. There is a great opportunity to see and touch the remains of the first great building project in Wales produced by William fitz Osbern. Chepstow was known to be the gateway to Wales. That who took possession of Chepstow controlled the whole Wales (Hunter & Ralston 1999, p. 235).
Having seen Chepstow Castle, Chepstow Gateways and Alm Houses, we are going to have a short walk along Offa’s Dyke. This dyke was built by the king Offa along the border between Wales and England. This dyke has not been dated by archeologists but according to the biography of Alfred the Great wriiten by the monk Asser: “a certain vigorous king called Offa…had a great dyke built between Wales and Mercia from sea to sea” (Keyness 1984, p. 71). Such historical places of interest amaze with their history. The excavations of such places allow to cast light upon some gaps of the history.
The Reference List
- Addyman P 1966, ‘Review of Dinas Powys: An Iron Age, Dark Age and Early Medieval Settlement in Glamorgan’. Ulster Journal of Archaeology , 3rd series, vol. 29.
- Alcock L 1963, Dinas Powys: An Iron Age, Dark Age and Early Medieval Settlement in Glamorgan. University of Wales Press, Cardiff.
- Hunter, J & Ralston, I 1999, The Archeology of Britain. Routledge, London.
- Keyness, S 1984, Alfred the Great: Asser’s Life of King Alfred & Other Contemporary Sources. Penguine Classics, New York.