Talking Hillforts

To kick off the new year in style, I will be talking hillforts next Thursday to the Deganwy History Group.

Some of you may know me as ‘Erin Hillforts’, especially if we’re connected through social media. Someone once asked me if ‘Hillforts’ really was my middle name!

To be honest, I’m glad it’s not! But the reason I use it is because hillforts are my passion, my area of expertise, and the topic for my doctoral thesis. And I love them!

In fact, the photograph the History Group have used to advertise my talk, and my profile picture on facebook, was taken just by the hillfort of Caer Oleu Camp near Cadair Ifan Goch (great name- translates to “Red Ivan’s Chair”!) in the Conwy Valley. The photo at the top of this post was taken just as I said “There’s one just there too!” pointing to Pen-y-Gaer hillfort at Llanbedr-y-Cennin, honestly!

Erin at Cadair Ifan Goch

For those of you who have been subscribers to my blog for a while, (if you haven’t yet done it, please do subscribe! There is a little box to fill in your email address on each of my blog post pages, including this one- if you can’t see it, keep scrolling!), you may have noticed I’ve been a little quieter with posts over the last couple of months. And guess why- my thesis is due for submission this year, argh!

So it’s head down and most nights after work (the day job) I’m either in the Uni library or in my study at home frantically typing away. But despite the lack of sleep, tired eyes and significant increase in caffeine consumption, I still love it.

Although officially it is ‘talking shop’, I’m always happy to be talking hillforts. And I’ve written about just why they fascinate me so much before in my blog post ‘Hillfort Heaven‘

My absolute archaeological passion is hillforts. One of the reasons for this is because they are still a huge mystery in the history of Britain- what are they? What were they used for? Why were they built? So many questions and much of the evidence to answer these questions being lost since they were first built, around 2,500 years ago.

Erin at Maiden Castle Hillfort, Dorset

I’ve been working on hillfort sites since I started my fantastic job with the Heather and Hillforts Project nine (nine?!!!) years ago. The project, which ran for five years, worked on the heather clad hilltops and six hillforts on the Clwydian  Range and Llantysilio Mountains, sitting in the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in north east Wales.

And I’m still talking hillforts today! My passion has gone from strength to strength and I just love sharing everything I have learnt about these fascinating, but still quite mysterious sites, over the last decade or so.

So if you would like to find out more about exactly what I have achieved in that time (no pressure!), please do come along to the Deganwy History Group meeting on Thursday 19th January 2017. Non-members are really welcome and for the cost of £2.50, a cuppa is included!

The talk begins at 7pm and will be held at Peniel Chapel Schoolroom, Ty Mawr Road, Deganwy, Conwy, Conwy LL31 9UD

Erin excavating Moel y Gaer hillfort ditch, Bodfari