Dinas Emrys
53.022222222222 - 4.0786111111111Koordinaten: 53 ° 1 ' 20 " N, 4 ° 4' 43 " W
Dinas Emrys (Welsh for " fortress of Ambrose " ) is a rocky, wooded hill, which forms a landmark on the valley floor at Beddgelert in North Wales.
Legends
It is of archaeological interest, that it is an example of a ring-wall, its attachment from the post-Roman period are, but also in connection with the legends of King Arthur is. This is the area of the famous exchange of words between the warlord Vortigern and Ambrosius Aurelianus the youthful, is reported by the Historia Brittonum in the. Vortigern, following the indication of his advisers wanted to kill the boy to appease supernatural forces that prevented him to build a fortress here; Ambrose laughed at this advice, and explained that the ring wall could not stand because of a hidden pond, which contains two vermes - a word that can be translated both with Dragon, as well as with the roof ( see the legend Cyfranc Lludd a Llefelys, "The history of Lludd and Llefelys ").
Excavations by Savory
It has long been known that there is a pond inside the fort. As the archaeologist HN Savory digging up the hill 1954-1956, but he was surprised not only to discover that the fortifications actually date from the time of Vortigern or Ambrosius, but also that - as in the Historia Brittonum described - a platform above the pond there. He found that the platform of a later date dated than assumed in the narrative, so that they can not be truthful on this point. The extent to which the existence of this platform influenced the narrative, or the platform was built only because of the story, can not be decided.
Savory described the fortifications as a stone wall that is 2.5 to 3 meters thick, exploiting every bump in the rocky summit and an irregular area of about one hectare area included. The original entrance was a path on a steep slope on the west side of the hill, while the present input Northern access here is a later attachment.
Undocumented Castle
The mysterious object on the hill, the base of a rectangular tower, is part of a non-documented stronghold of the Welsh in the 12th century.