Dinas Emrys

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Dinas Emrys (Welsh for "fortress of Ambrosius") is a rocky and wooded hillock near Beddgelert in North Wales. Rising some 76m above the floor of the Glaslyn river valley, it overlooks the southern end of Llyn Dinas.

While it is of interest to archaeologists because it is an example of a hill fort whose fortifications entirely postdate the Roman period, this hillock is of interest to the greater group of enthusiasts about the legends of King Arthur. This is the setting of the famous exchange of the warlord Vortigern and the youthful Merlin, as told in the Historia Britonum.

When the High-King Vortigern fled into Wales to escape the Anglo-Saxon hoards, he chose this lofty hillfort as the site for his royal retreat. Every day his men would work hard erecting the first of several proposed towers for the palace; but the next morning they would return to find the masonry collapsed in a heap. This continued for many weeks until Vortigern was advised to seek the help of a young orphan boy born of the fairies. The King sent his soldiers out across the land to find such a lad. They were eventually successful at the city which became known as Caer Myrddin (Carmarthen). The boy was called Myrddin Emrys, better known as Merlin today. Vortigern, following the advice of his councillors, was planning to kill the boy in order to appease supernatural powers that prevented him from building a fortress here. Merlin laughed at this advice, and instead explained that the hill fort could not stand due to a hidden pool containing two vermes, a word that can be translated as either "badgers" or "dragons". He explained how the White Dragon of the Saxons though winning the battle at present, would soon be defeated by the British Red Dragon. After Vortigern's downfall, the fort was given to High-King Ambrosius Aurelianus alias Emrys Wledig (the Imperator), hence its name.

As to how the dragons became confined there, the story of Llud and Llefelys in the Mabinogion gives details. When Llud ruled Britain, a scream, whose origin could not be determined, was heard each May Eve. Llefelys, King of Gaul, furnished the information that it was caused by battling dragons. The scream would be uttered by the dragon of the British nation when it was about to be defeated. The dragons were captured and buried at Dinas Emrys. The main entrance to the fort is on the northern side of the hill and traces of a ruined tower 36 feet by 24 feet have been found on the summit. Nearby is a circle of tumbled stones about 30 feet in diameter which is said to be a mystic circle in which the dragons were hidden. At one time the fort was known as Dinas Fforan - The Fort with High Powers. Myrddin apparently hid his treasure in a cave at Dinas Emrys. He placed it in a golden vessel and that was placed with his golden chair inside a cave. He then rolled a huge stone over the entrance and covered it with earth and green turf.

According to local legend we are told that the discoverer of the treasure will be 'golden-haired and blue-eyed'. When that lucky person is near to Dinas Emrys a bell will ring to invite him or her into the cave, which will open of its own accord as soon as that person's foot touches it. A young man who lived near Beddgelert once searched for the treasure, hoping to give himself a good start in life. He took a pickaxe and climbed to the top of the hill. When he began to dig in earnest on the site of the tower, some terrible unearthly noises began to rumble under his feet. The Dinas began to rock like a cradle and the sun clouded over so it became pitch dark. Lightning flashed in the sky and thunder clapped over his head. He dropped the pickaxe and ran home. When he arrived, everything was calm again but he never returned to collect his pickaxe. Not far from Dinas Emrys is Cell-y-Dewiniaid - "The Grove of the Magicians". There is a field here that once had a thick grove of oak trees at its northern end. Vortigern's wise men used to meet here to discuss the great events of their times. An adjacent field is where they were buried and at one time a stone actually marked the site of each grave. A white thorn tree annually decorated each resting place with falling white blossoms.

Dinas Emrys with the River Glaslyn in the foreground

It has long been known that there is a pool inside of the fort, but when the archaeologist Dr H. N. Savory excavated the hill fort between 1954-6, he was surprised to find that not only were the fortifications of about the right time frame for either Vortigern or Ambrosius, but that there was a platform above the pool as described in the Historia Britonum. However, he found the platform to date much later than the accepted florit of either personage, showing that the story was not entirely accurate. The question of whether the existence of the platform near the pool or cistern inspired the story or the platform was built in response to the story has not been determined.

Savory described the fortifications as consisting of stone walls between 2.5 and 3 metres thick, which exploited every irregularity in the rocky hill-top, enclosing an irregular area of about a 10,000 m² in size. The original means of access was by a steep path on the western side of the hill fort. The present entrance from the north-east is a later addition.

The most conspicuous object currently on the hill, the base of a rectangular tower, is part of an undocumented castle, most likely built by the Welsh in the twelfth century.