ILLUSTRATIONS

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1. YHA Newport

2. Iron Age Sheep

3. Sacred Spring

4. Iron Age Pigs

5. Herb Garden

6. Rotweiler the Celt

7. Chevaux de Frise

8. Roundhouse

9. Granary

10. Smithy/Forge

11. Woading

12. Weaving

13. Wattling

14. Daubing

15. Bleeding Yew

16. Crosses

17. Pentre Ifan

18. Pentre Ifan

19. Ted on Tour

20. I'm tired

and I want to

go home.

It is THAT time of year again, the time of year when a minibus full of Young Archaeologists head out into the wilderness in search of anything archaeological. For the past two years this annual pilgrimage has taken place on Dartmoor, this time it was decided to pay a visit to Pembrokeshire. Base for the week was the small youth hostel in Newport which seemed to be surrounded by prehistoric sites and monuments, ideal - see ill 1. The first day was spent travelling and generally messing around, all of which culminated in a fish and chip feast on the nearby beach. Judging by the amount of crabs the kids were finding we could have saved a fortune on the fish and just settled for crab and chips.

After having endured what seemed to be endless days of torrential rain it was with some trepidation that we planned the itinerary. For the past 6 months the children have been building model Iron Age roundhouses, constructed in an authentic manner. Therefore we aimed to take the group up to the nearby reconstructed Iron Age hillfort at Castell Henllys to see what 'proper jobs' looked like and to get an insight into life 2,607 years ago. It was at Castell Henllys in 2000 that the BBC 1 filmed the seven week series, "Surviving the Iron Age', which if I remember was a complete farce. Personally I could happily live here 24/7, there was a definite air of peace and tranquillity and life seems a lot slower.

Having arrived at the fort we were met by Liz who was one of our guides for the day, she wasted no time in taking sixteen screaming children through a time maze which landed them back in the Iron Age, pity a helicopter whoomped overhead shortly after landing. The first sign of Iron Age life was a small flock of Soay sheep, some of which were black and some a gingery colour. Apparently these are the nearest living relatives to the sheep which would have been kept around 2000 years ago - see ill. 2. The beauty of these sheep is that they voluntarily 'shed' their fleece thus saving the hassle of having to shear them. Well that's the theory, apparently the darker ones were not to keen on parting with their coats and had to be shorn by modern-day means. It was hoped that the ginger ones would be more forthcoming with their wool donations.

The next sign of pagan habitation was the small wooded glade from which the headwaters of a sacred spring tumbled from the ground - see ill. 3. Dotted around the spring were various statues of ancient gods, one being the 'earth mother' who seemed to cause a stir amongst the boys as she was naked. The ritual area was well laid out and gave a good illustration as to what and how the Iron Age people worshipped their gods.

Next up was the Iron Age pigs who were a lively bunch, these animals were wild boar and Tamworth crosses with the bias towards the latter breed - see ill. 4. As with the Soay sheep these pigs are probably the nearest to what the people in the Iron Age would have kept, although their animals would not have been regulated by DEFRA rulings. Basically you are not allowed to feed them apples for fear of transmitting deadly diseases such as Foot and Mouth???

Just below the pig pen lies the herb garden which again is well stocked with herbs that would have been used for medicinal and culinary purposes during the Iron Age. One plant that seemed to be thriving was woad (more of which later) - see ill. 5.

It was at this point that the children met 'Rotweiler' or some such name, he was supposed to be an Iron Age warrior who was going to act as the guide. In reality he was an archaeological student from Lampeter University and who was a member of some Celtic re-enactment society, either way he was not used to talking to children as can be seen by their expressions - see ill. 6. So what was Castell Henllys? In a nutshell it was an inland promontory fort dating back to around 600BC, the site also has evidence of a Romano-British farmstead and later post-Roman activity. The discovery of an arrowhead has also presented the possibility that the site was occupied as early as the Neolithic times. There is an ongoing archaeological investigation carried out by York University which also encompasses a training dig. The project was started in 1980 and since then much of the fort has been exposed and five buildings reconstructed to the exact sizes and locations of the original ones. One of the first things to come to light was the chevaux-de-frise which was a major element of the defences and as can be seen from - ill 7, consists of a jumble of upright stones and slabs. This example of a chevaux-de-frise has been described as, "one of the finest such defence in the Celtic world". This feature and its name had been drilled into the kids heads for weeks, therefore when Rotweiler asked if anybody knew what it was his thunder was very efficiently stolen. "Ah, but what was it used for"? he asked, "to stop people and horses from running through it", the kids replied in unison. Exactly, it meant that anybody wishing to get through the jumble of rocks would have to slowly pick their way between them, this in effect presented the defenders with a stationary target for their slings and spears.

We were then led into a roundhouse where Rotweiler regaled the kids with stories of yore, this at least gave them chance to catch up with the sleep they had lost by staying up late the previous night. Sadly, representations had to be made to Liz and poor old Rotweiler was dispatched off to the electric buggy to do some errand or other. As mentioned above there are five reconstructed buildings at Castell Henllys; the Chieftains house - see ill. 8, a meeting house known as earthwatch, the first reconstruction house, a smithy - see ill. 10, and a four poster structure thought to have been a granary - see ill. 9.

Having lost our Celtic guide it was decided to do some Iron Age activities, the first of which was face painting with woad - see ill. 11. As can be seen from the various photos the weather was bright and breezy during our visit. This gave a highly amusing slant to the 'woading' because once the pretty spirals had been applied they acted as a very effective sun screen. So, when that evening people took showers and washed the woad off they were left with a white imprint of the pattern on sunburnt faces. Imagine the fun you could have on such days if you were applying the woad, kids walking around with 'numpty' emblazoned across their foreheads.

After the painting the kids then went to the weaving shed where they made a withy basket - see ill. 12, and then on to do some wattling - see ill. 13 and daubing - see ill. 14. Having been pre-warned that the Iron Age folk made their daub from mud, blood, hair and dung it was with mixed emotions that little hands were shoved into the daub buckets. But this gave them an insight into how the roundhouse walls were first woven and then filled in with the daub.

The kids were then given a chance to chuck a spear at an Iron Age target in an effort to show how food was obtained prior to Tesco. Rotweiler also reappeared to join in the fun which culminated in him offering, "the best aimer", to throw a spear at his head which he would then attempt to catch in mid air. This really impressed the assembled crowd so much that by the time he offered a second go most of them were back on the bus. Sadly it was then time to walk back down the time tunnel and return to the 21st century and the gift shop. All in all an enjoyable day was had by all and the children did get a good insight into what living in the Iron Age would be like.

From Castell Henllys we drove down to the nearby village of Nevern to see the church and its 'bleeding yew'. Christian tradition has it that once a year the tree bleeds in memory of Christ, pagan tradition has a different version involving the earth mother and with that we will say no more. There is then the supposition that the blood of all those buried in the churchyard flows from the tree. Alternatively the tree will continue to bleed until a Welshman is once again occupied Nevern castle. You could even have the version whereby the tree bleeds because a man was once hung from its branches. In all reality nobody seems to know why the tree exudes this red sap but luckily on this visit the blood was flowing well much to the amazement of the kids - see ill. 15.

Also to be found in the churchyard is the huge, ornately carved cross of St. Brynach which is thought to date to around the 11th century. Legend will say how St. David was carrying the cross to Llanddewibrefi when he paid a visit to St. Brynach in the hope of some food and water. Brynach took a fancy to the cross and would only hand over the food and water if St. David left the cross at Nevern which he clearly did. To the left of the church door stands another old stone, the Vitalianus Stone which is thought to date back to about AD500. On the stone are two inscriptions one in ogham and the other in Latin The Latin reads VITALIANI EMERTO, meaning '(the stone) of Vitalianus Emereto(s). Some say that the title was a Roman one which was bestowed on on a Briton who had served as a soldier. Another suggestion is that the stone marked the grave of Vitalianus father of Vitalis who was the father of Vortigen - see ill. 16.

On the final day we called up to the ancient Neolithic tomb of Pentre Ifan - see ill 17. This portal dolmen has to be the most photographed tomb in Wales, an exact Google search will bring up 21,500 sites. The tomb dates to around 4000BC and various excavations have unearthed a few finds which included; a flint scraper, a broken triangular arrowhead, a flint knife blade, several white quartz pebbles and pottery sherds from a mortuary bowl. Over the years there have been three excavations which suggest that the monument went through three phases of development. It has been estimated that the capstone weighs around 16 tonnes which sparked an interesting discussion as to how the tomb builders managed to get it in position. Suggestions varied from building a ramp to hiring a crane? As this was the last port of call the final tour photograph was taken - see ill 18 along with one of the teddy bear on tour - see ill. 19. After a final treat in the form of a visit to McDonalds 15 weary young archaeologists were delivered safely back to their parents - see ill. 20.

Reading List.

Figgis, N. P. 2001 Prehistoric Preseli, Atelier Productions, Machynlleth.

Miles, D. 1998 A Book on Nevern, Gomer Press, Llandysul.

Mythum, H. 1999 Castell Henllys, Current Archaeology, No. 161, Vol. XIV No. 5.