The Pendinas Hillfort project has come to an end after 18 months of excavations, surveys, tours, talks and more.

The community project went out with a bang with its final Pendinas Community Archaeology Festival.

Looking back at the last 18 months, Beca Davies, Pendinas Project Community Outreach Officer, said: “What a fun, jam-packed 18 months it’s been.

“We’ve had two excavations up on Pendinas, a handful of geophysical survey days, numerous guided tours of the site for people of all ages and abilities, a series of lectures for everyone to enjoy, organised craft activities such as lino printing and map making, vegetation clearance on Pendinas, school visits and even a new Pendinas Mural at Llwyn yr Eos Primary School!

“To top it all off, we’ve also had two very successful Pendinas Archaeology Festivals, where the local community came together to celebrate their ancient monument.”

The final Pendinas Archaeology Festival was held at the hub in Penparcau on Saturday, 27 July.

MP Ben Lake formally opened the festival and unveiled the new Pendinas mural at Llwyn yr Eos Primary School.

This mural was created by local mural artist, Megan Elinor Jones, and features Maelor the Giant - who lived on Pendinas - as well as some of the little creatures and plants that can be seen there. They were painted by Year 6 students as a lasting memento before they left for secondary school.

During the morning of the festival there were two guided tours of Pendinas. The bilingual Welsh and English one was guided by Beca, and the other, in English, was guided by Luke Jenkins, an archaeologist at Heneb. Over the course of the two tours, over 120 people climbed to the top of Pendinas and enjoyed the lovely views.

Beca said: “We had numerous fun activities for everyone to enjoy including clay pot making, a mini excavation, local mapping activity, and a dressing-up corner, as well as heritage stalls to explore at your leisure.

“The amazing Morgan of Mercia, Celtic Bard and Troubadour, also gave a brilliant performance with a ‘show and tell session’ where he and his bandmates played Celtic instruments, and performed ancient Welsh songs as well as new covers.

“The Celtic Carnyx horn also made another appearance at the festival, this time taking pride of place in the main hall at the hub for everyone to admire.

“Iron Age villagers from Castell Henllys roamed the grounds at the Hub, teaching us how to use slingshots, like the ones found in abundance at Pendinas! They also showed us how the people of the Iron Age made bread – and you could make your own individual loaf!

“In the afternoon we had two brilliant lectures by Dr Toby Driver from the Royal Commission about the new digital reconstruction of Pendinas Hillfort, and by Ken Murphy from Heneb about the archaeological excavations of the hillforts in west Wales. These talks had a full audience – with people lining the walls to learn as much as they could!

“To bring the day to a close, Christoher Catling, CEO of the Royal Commission, launched our new book ‘Discovering Pendinas Hillfort, Penparcau, Aberystwyth’ which is freely available to everyone by downloading from our website.

“Throughout the day visitors were sustained by Roman honey cake and ‘Celtic Cawl’. A highlight of the afternoon session was the celebratory cake topped by an image of the cover of our new Pendinas book.

“This festival was the perfect way to celebrate the work we’ve done and to conclude the Pendinas Hillfort Community Project. We finished as we started; everyone together to celebrate the community of Penparcau and their magical Pendinas Hillfort!”

Beca said: “I’d like to thank everyone involved in the project who helped make it a success! To the amazing volunteers who trudged up Pendinas every day to excavate, the steering froup members for all their ideas and support, the staff at the hub who made sure our events ran smoothly, local ecologist Chloe Griffiths for sharing her knowledge on Pendinas’ ecology, local artist Megan Elinor Jones for her fabulous Pendinas Mural, everyone at Llwyn yr Eos for their enthusiasm and support, the NLHF and Cadw for their funding and, of course, all the staff from the Royal Commission and Heneb for working tirelessly together over the last year and a half.

“Last, but not least, I would like to thank the local people of Penparcau for welcoming us and for supporting all of our events, and for sharing their stories and tales of the Hillfort.

“Penparcau is a very special place, and it only seems right that it should be home to one of the most impressive and powerful hillforts in Wales!

“Diolch o galon.”