Foel Fenlli

Nearest town:
Ruthin (5km WSW)
OS reference:
SJ164601
OS sheet:
116
Latitude:
53° 7' 52.04 N
Longitude:
3° 14' 58.73 W
Added to TMA by

Images

Image of Foel Fenlli (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Hillforted Foel Fenlli on the left, be-cairned Moel Gyw on the right. The viewpoint is Offa’s Dyke Path as it rounds the flank of Moel Llanfair.

Image credit: A. Brookes (22.1.2011)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 21, 2013
Image of Foel Fenlli (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

A frozen Foel Fenlli, with Moel Famau behind, seen from Moel Gyw.

Image credit: A. Brookes (22.1.2011)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jan 24, 2011
Image of Foel Fenlli (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The alarmingly steep drop away on the south side of the fort.

Image credit: A. Brookes (12.9.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 26, 2010
Image of Foel Fenlli (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The ramparts at the eastern end of the fort, looking south towards Llangollen.

Image credit: A. Brookes (12.9.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 26, 2010
Image of Foel Fenlli (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Approaching the highest point of the hill at its eastern end. Lunatic runner provides scale. Looking eastwards, the Dee, Stanlow Oil Refinery and Merseyside are visible.

Image credit: A. Brookes (12.9.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 26, 2010
Image of Foel Fenlli (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Looking NW along the northern rampart, towards a hazy and near invisible Snowdonia. G/F provides scale for the impressive earthworks.

Image credit: A. Brookes (12.9.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 26, 2010
Image of Foel Fenlli (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

Multiple lines of ramparts and ditches. A good point to get your breath back!

Image credit: A. Brookes (12.9.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 26, 2010
Image of Foel Fenlli (Hillfort) by thesweetcheat

The imposing bulk of Foel Fenlli, seen from Offa’s Dyke Path to the NW.

Image credit: A. Brookes (12.9.2010)
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Sep 25, 2010
Image of Foel Fenlli (Hillfort) by postman

Looking westish, note the tiny carpark on the right, way down there

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Feb 13, 2007
Image of Foel Fenlli (Hillfort) by postman

Looking across the summit cairn to the entrance, and Moel Gyw.(I think)

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Feb 13, 2007
Image of Foel Fenlli (Hillfort) by postman

Our Eric defines the entrance , looking in

Image credit: Chris Bickerton
postman
postman Feb 13, 2007

Articles

Foel Fenlli

thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Jun 5, 2012

From Bwlch Penbarra we have another steep, steep climb to get up to the ramparts of Foel Fenlli. Like the opening ascent of the day some two hours earlier, this is short, sharp shock. Our legs are more tired now that they were then though, and the hundred metres of vertical ascent is harder work this time. However, the reward is utterly worthwhile. Foel Fenlli is multi-vallate, like the other Clwydian forts. It has the benefit of terrific natural defences by virtue of its positioning atop a hill with steep drops on three sides (only the eastern approach is anything but knackering for any would-be attacker). Iron Age status symbol? You bet. The Vale of Clwyd looks a looong way below us. There are good views of the nearest of the neighbouring forts, Moel y Gaer.

Foel Fenlli

postman
postman Feb 13, 2007

There’s no two ways about it, it’s a long hard slog to get up here but if you stop two or three times and have a look about your hardship is well rewarded.Two sets of banks and ditches are well preserved on the hilltop ,a good south facing entrance that seems to enter the fort at an angle .(not seen one of them before)On a clear day you can see really far Cadair Idris ,Snowdon and Tryfan To the West and the seemingly endless plains to the east and the other Clwydian mountains north and south .The summit cairn I think is modern but it sits on a more intergrated bump that may be an ancient work of some sort.
Plenty of carparking space by the way

Folklore

Foel Fenlli
Hillfort
Rhiannon
Rhiannon Jul 7, 2006

Foel Fenlli is a high conical hill topped by a hill fort – it’s the highest in a chain of hillforts that run along the Clwydian range. The summit has a cairn, and nearby is “a never failing crystal spring”. The fort is named after Benlli Gawr. Nennius describes him as the ‘wicked and tyrannical king’ of Powys. Perhaps he was, perhaps he wasn’t. Whichever, Saint Germanus was in the neighbourhood, and he and his friends turned up at the front door of the fort demanding to see the man. They just wanted to convert him to Christianity. For his own good, you know. It wasn’t an evangelical competition to convert the naughtiest pagan they could find or anything. A message was sent to Benlli. He sent back his response: Not Today Thankyou – they could stand on his doorstep for a whole year if they liked, but they weren’t coming in.

Well. That night, ‘fire fell from heaven and consumed the citadel and all the men that were with the tyrant; they were never seen more’. Sounds very like arson to me. And to add to the suspicious circumstances, Germanus then took it upon himself to make Benlli’s swineherd the new king of Powys. Just because he’d been nice to Germanus, made him a cup of tea and agreed to become a Christian. What a set-up.

(Nennius’s tale described in vol 2 of ‘Lives of the British Saints’ by Baring-Gould (1913), p255.)

Sites within 20km of Foel Fenlli

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