Pendinas Archaeology Festival

Come and join us for the Second Pendinas Festival of Archaeology on Saturday 27 July between 10am and 4pm at the Community Hub, Penparcau, Aberystwyth. This will be a fun-filled day celebrating the fantastic work that’s been achieved over the last two years by our Pendinas Hillfort Community funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Ben Lake, MP, will be formally opening the festival at 10.15 am at the Hub, and will also be unveiling a top secret part of the Pendinas Project over at Ysgol Llwyn yr Eos School. Iron Age Villagers from Castell Henllys will be hosting Celtic activities such as slingshot firing, face painting and bread-making throughout the day, and the Celtic Bard and Troubadour Morgan of Mercia will give a musical performance at 11am! We will also have other activities running during the day such as clay pot-making, round-house building, dressing up stations and even a mini excavation where you can try your hand at being an archaeologist!

Join Luke Jenkins at 11.30am and Beca Davies at 12.30pm for guided tours of the hillfort, the first in English and the second will be bilingual, and enjoy talks by Toby Driver and Ken Murphy on ‘Reconstructing Pendinas Hillfort – a New View of a Busy Prehistoric Hilltop Town’, and ‘Archaeological Excavations of Hillforts in West Wales’ beginning at 2pm at the Hwb. We will also have local wildlife expert Chloe Griffiths mapping your memories of this ancient hillfort with the help of our mapping expert, Jon Dollery. There will be stalls representing the Commission, Heneb, the Portable Antiquities Scheme and other heritage organisations, as well as responsible metal detecting.

You will also get the chance to sample some Celtic and Roman food, like our ‘Celtic Cawl’ and ‘Roman Honey Cake’! To finish the project in style we will also have a celebration cake which will be cut at the end of the festival, which you can enjoy with a free cup of tea or coffee!

We’re also very excited to announce that our book ‘Discovering Pendinas Hillfort, Penparcau, Aberystwyth’ has gone to print and will be formally launched by Christopher Catling at 3pm on the day! There will be a free copy available to all those who attend the festival, but don’t worry if you are unable to attend, the book will be free to download from our website: https://rcahmw.gov.uk/