‘The Romans built… a small city call’d Varus. This without any diminution of its name, is call’d at this day Bod Vari, which signifies the mansion of Varus; and shews the ruins of the City, on a small hill adjoyning call’d Moel y Gaer, i.e. the City-hill.’
W. Camden, Britannia, p.822
Imagine if you will, a gathering of early Antiquarians - a Parchment of Antiquarians, for want of a better collective noun.(1) Imagine them now, fiercely pounding a square peg into a round hole(2), becoming ever more politely frustrated as it fails to fit. Then consider the poor battered peg to be the little village of Bodfari, and the round hole to be the oh-so-very-lost Roman settlement of Varis. And, inevitably it seems, the hillfort overlooking the strategic Chwiler Gap, became identified, initially at least, to be the location of Varis. Such was the early lure of Moel y Gaer Bodfari. The siting of a hillfort and possibly Varis in Bodfari was seen, by some at least, to be no coincidence.
Despite the apparent similarities in the names of Bodfari and Varis, seized upon by antiquarians gone, there is no etymological connection between the two - at all. However, the identification of Bodfari as Varis seems to have largely rested on this coincidence, and Camden’s grasp of it in the 16th century - as well as the finding of a number of buried cremation urns at nearby Pontruffydd. And Varis, after all, is still lost, though it seems fairly certain to be under St Asaph Cathedral, and while this remains the case, there will always be an element of wonder. But, however much one wishes the square peg to fit the round hole, it shan’t, you know.
Moel y Gaer viewed from the west.
Moel y Gaer at Bodfari is an Iron Age hillfort, of course. Thomas Pennant, visiting at the end of the 18th century recognised it as such, even though it would seem he had been lately wandering around the Chwiler Gap looking for any Roman remains. It’s unlikely that however Pennant felt about the possibility of Varis being somewhere close to Bodfari, that he would have seen the hillfort as the Roman settlement, given his considerable experience of meeting them on his travels.
‘The sole remaining antiquity is British, a post on a hill to the left [of Bodfari village], called Moel y Gaer, or the hill of the camp.’
Pennant, Tours in Wales Vol. II, p138
In truth, later antiquarians, those less inclined to drama, and rather more knowledgeable of the differences between hillforts and Roman settlements, were inclined to separate Moel y Gaer and any possible siting of Varis in the Bodfari area. Edward Lhuyd had earlier written of the hillfort in 1699, albeit briefly, though with no mention of Varis at all.
‘A large entrenchment wth a double ditch on one side & one elsewhere near ye Church called Moel y Gaer.’
Parochialia, Part I, p69
In September 1808, the antiquarian Richard Fenton visited the Bodfari area in the company of his friend, Mr Owen. Having stayed in Denbigh the previous night, the two ventured out the following day, specifically in an effort to discover evidence of Varis. From Fenton’s diaries, it seems he was convinced that the lost station of Varis was somewhere thereabouts, his head likely crammed with the Antonine Itinerary and the thoughts of likely Roman roads in the area.
‘Rode up to the Fields under and about Bodfari, traversing them in every direction, but found no traces of the Station.’
Tours in Wales (1804-1813), p. 153
His quite obvious disappointment was swiftly dismissed when, in conversation with a local farmer, Fenton was told of the discovery, some years earlier, of a collection of cremation urns in a plantation owned by Pontruffyd House. Fenton seized upon these finds as evidence of Varis, deciding that,
‘never did a place strike us as better situated for the situation, being the first gentle eminence that occurs after crossing the Clwyd.’
Tours in Wales (1804-1813), p. 154
Interesting, however, is the fact that Fenton does not mention the hillfort at all. It would seem that he was of the opinion that Varis, while somewhere in the pass through the Clwydians below Bodfari, was not to be found at nearby Moel y Gaer. And it would seem then that Fenton had little interest in Moel y Gaer. Thus having knowledge of the reburied urns, he seems to have been content to believe that he had found the site of Varis. His friend Owen seems to have sought permission to dig up the site where the urns were found (and reburied), but little more is heard of this. Happy now, Fenton returned to Denbigh, just in time for dinner.
Writing in 1834, Samuel Lewis, or one of his correspondents had been convinced that Varis was at Bodfari, based largely on the name and various Roma finds, including the urns, but it is clear that the nearby hillfort was to be seen differently.
‘To the east of the village is Moel y Gaer or ‘the Hill of the Camp’, apparently a British work and probably constructed for the purpose of defending the pass through the Clwydian mountains.’
S. Lewis, Topographical Dictionary of Wales, (1834)
So, while early antiquarians saw Varis and Moel y Gaer as one and the same, by the later 17th century, and certainly by the end of the 18th century, the hillfort had become separated from the mystery of Varis - which was still believed to be somewhere about the village of Bodfari, to the extent where the Celtic scholar, Aneurin Owen (1792-1851) was said to have identified its embankments.
Still, it is telling that after the small scale excavation of 1908, the Rev. Philip Stapleton was inclined to make quite clear in his conclusions, that,
‘If anything can be learned from an exploration that yielded nothing in the shape of a find, it is perhaps that Moel-y-Gaer was at least never occupied by the Romans.’
P. Stapleton, Archaeologia Cambrensis 6th Series IX, 1909, p.237
With any thoughts of Moel y Gaer as Varis firmly put aside, what then can we say of Moel y Gaer Bodfari? The first is that its position, at the northern extremity of the Clywidians and overlooking the gap and routeway through the mountains, as well as the confluence of the Rivers Chwiler and Clwyd is outstanding, and no coincidence, of course. Whatever else its purpose may have been, its placement here was clearly a means to control, to manage and impress movement through the Chwiler Gap, as was recognised by Lewis at the beginning of the 19th century. It is the lowest of the Clwydian hillforts, at some 206m at its highest point, though as is often the case, this feels moot, as you huffle, puffle and shuffle up its steep western banks to the ramparts. At 1.8 hectares in area, it is also one of the smallest - only Moel y Gaer Llantysilio is smaller. As for a date, the best that can be said is for a middle Iron Age origin, somewhere around 400 AD, based on radiocarbon dating.
There have been two excavations of Bodari, the first by the students of what was St Beuno’s College at nearby Tremeirchion, led by the Rev. Stapleton in 1908. He was advised on a couple of occasions by Professor J. L. Myers of Liverpool University. A small scale excavation, nothing in the way of finds were discovered, as has been said and much to Stapleton’s disappointment, but it began the process of making some sense of the ramparts and discovered what may have been a western entrance, as well as the known northern gateway. From his notes, it is hard not to suppose that lurking in the back of his mind, Stapleton had thoughts of Varis.
Excavations from 2011 onwards by Lock and Pouncett were far more extensive, involving not just excavations, but also geophysics and Lidar imaging. The results of their efforts have brought a clearer understanding of Moel y Gaer, while also, as is often the case, raising further questions.
Moel y Gaer began as a univallate affair, which was developed over time into a larger, multivallate hillfort, certainly on its north to south western flank, with powerful stone revetted walls overlooking the steep slopes to the pass through the Clwydians beneath. The eastern ramparts remain something of a mystery, since little of the original ramparts remain, having been a victim of later quarrying. Whether this was part of a distinct Phase 2 development is still a matter of some debate, since it would seem that Moel y Gaer was in a state of near constant rebuild and tinkering-with. It seems certain that there was indeed a western inturned entrance, confirming Stapleton’s work at the beginning of the 20th century, while the northern entranceway, facing the smoother, less precipitous route into the hillfort, was developed into an impressive monumental business, featuring a bastion-like feature. This monumentality of the entranceway served a number of functions, not least as a means of both impressing and intimidating those that approached.
This begs the question as to the purpose of Moel y Gaer. That, as you will perhaps not be surprised to learn, is near impossible to answer. Why we often assume that a hillfort must have a specific function is curious, since it’s likely they served many - and perhaps the least of them would be as a fort, a defensive structure. The discovery of several spindle whorls within the confines of Moel y Gaer suggest that spinning was undertaken here, though the find of just one roundhouse and a lack of a spring within the ramparts does not point to year long habitation. It is possible, if not probable that Moel y Gaer, while certainly monitoring the flow of traffic through the Clwydians, including the trade routes to and from Ireland, had a seasonal role in managing livestock. Other than this, it’s likely that Moel y Gaer served as a base for all manner of gatherings - social, ritual and political. It is also worth pointing out that, Ellis Davies, writing in 1949, mused that Moel y Gaer may well have been the 'Fort of Meirchion', which gave its name to nearby Tremeirchion
As with all the Clwydian hillforts, to climb them, to walk them, to spend time within the impressive, overgrown ramparts is to feel a connection to the past, part of something greater than ourselves, wider and more expansive. It is impossible not to be lifted by the views on offer, of the Clwydians stretching south to the Berwyns. And in our efforts to understand the purpose of these magnificent monuments, it’s worth keeping in mind that doubtless, those that walked the ramparts over 2000 years ago, felt much the same.
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Footnotes
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(1) I apologise for my fit of whimsy.
(2) ‘If you choose to represent the various parts in life by holes upon a table, of different shapes,—some circular, some triangular, some square, some oblong,—and the person acting these parts by bits of wood of similar shapes, we shall generally find that the triangular person has got into the square hole, the oblong into the triangular, and a square person has squeezed himself into the round hole. The officer and the office, the doer and the thing done, seldom fit so exactly, that we can say they were almost made for each other.
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Further Reading
I. Brown, Beacons in the Landscape, The Hillforts of England and Wales, Oxbow, Oxford, (2009)
W. Camden, Britannia, ed. E. Gibson, London, (1722)
E. Davies, The Prehistoric and Roman Remains of Flintshire, Cardiff, (1949)
T. Driver, The Hillforts of Iron Age Wales, Logaston Press, Eardisley, (2023)
S. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales, London, (1834)
E. Lhuyd, Parochialia Part I, Archaeologia Cambrensis, (1909)
G. Lock, Moel-y-Gaer (Bodfari) A Small hillfort in Denbighshire, North Wales, Archaeopress Archaeology, Oxford, (2022)
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P. Stapleton, Exploration of Moel-y-Gaer, Bodfari, Archaeologia Cambrensis, 6th Series Vol. IX, (1909)
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T. Pennant, Tours in Wales Vol II, ed. J. Rhys, Caernarvon, (1883)
Website(s)
Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland ~ Moel-y-Gaer Bodfari
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