Gop Hill Neolithic Mound
Join Poppy and I on our recent walk to Y Gop Hill, Trelawnyd, in our latest video. We spent a sunny afternoon visiting the Neolithic mound, which is not far from Prestatyn, Rhyl and St Asaph.
The mound dates to the Neolithic period – the ‘New Stone Age’. In archaeology, the Stone Age is broken down into the Palaeolithic Period (the longest ago), the Mesolithic Period and the Neolithic Period, before we then have the Bronze Age and Iron Age. When excavated, the only things found were animal bones. This simply is an earthern mound built up around 5,500 years ago. Gop Hill is the largest human-built prehistoric mound in Wales, and the third largest in Britain.
It sits above Gop Caves, where dateable items were found in the 1880’s including the remains of 14 Neolithic skeletons. In more recent excavations, a Neolithic polished stone axe from Graig Lwyd, Penmaenmawr, one of the largest Neolithic axe factories in Wales, was found.
Gop Hill is also a legendary burial place of Iron Age Queen Boudicea, or ‘Boudica’, after her last battle. She was Queen of the Iceni – a tribe which lived in modern day Norfolk.
Once you know it is there, you can spot it for miles around, especially now the top of the hill has been cleared of scrub. From the hill, following a short walk through the trees, the vista is stunning, reaching far down the Clwydian Range, over to Snowdonia, up to the sea and down the Dee Estuary.
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