Anomalies, Unknowns & Beggaring Belief
There has only ever been one supposedly authoritative archaeological survey of Garn Goch, and that was undertaken by AHA Hogg nearly 50 years ago. Who he, you may ask? Well, in 1974 he was coming to the very end of his career (his first published work was in 1930) as the foremost authority on Welsh Iron Age hillforts. Read his bibliography, and you'll see it's packed with hillforts, so why was he chosen? Because he was the expert on Welsh hillforts.
What did he see when he came to Garn Goch? Surprise surprise: a hillfort. How did he interpret the evidence? On the assumption that it was an Iron Age hillfort. What did he decide Garn Goch was? An Iron Age hillfort. Did Garn Goch ever stand a chance of being seen objectively and without prejudice? No.
Was it a thorough survey? No. It's brief, running to just 11 pages (whereas the adjacent articles run to 24 and 30 pages), and he admits that he will undertake no excavation, and concentrate on 'detailed factual descriptions', yet then admits his descriptions are 'only rough'. With impressive honesty, he admits to features being 'puzzling', and uses phrases like 'The writer inclines to the view that...' as well as admitting to there being several 'anomalies', and that with several features 'proof is impossible'. With the benefit of a nearly 50 year perspective, it is possible to question the verifiability of some of his statements from his article in Archaeologia Cambrensis 1974.
He assumed, so neither questioned nor proved, that Garn Goch was a 'fort', yet Tre'r Ceiri, where his ongoing excavations had made his reputation decades before, has, Coflein says, 'a formidable single rampart which still stands up to 4m high in places. Where nearly intact, the top of the rampart still has its parapet walk reached via a number of sloping ramps from the interior.' Here is what the ramparts of the nearby Garn Boduan Iron Age hillfort look like. Garn Goch has none of those features, and simple observation of the number of stones and the absence of any evidence of revetted walls argues compellingly that it never had them, so they cannot be, as he describes them, 'very ruinous'.
Tre'r Ceiri had 8 posterns, and Hogg stated that Garn Goch has 6 posterns, which he described as 'ruinous', yet are more accurately described as imaginary. Here is what a postern at Tre'r Ceiri looks like. In fact, at Garn Goch there is only one that could be described as a postern ('a secondary door or gate in a fortification...often located in a concealed location which allowed the occupants to come and go inconspicuously'). It's on the south side, is not at all concealed, and there are no signs of gate posts, nor holes for gates hinges, as he admits, so was not part of defensive arrangements.
Supporting his fort interpretation, he describes that the wide entrances east and west as a 'double portal' and 'gateway', although he admits there is no evidence, and that 'proof is impossible', yet such wide entrances are entirely inconsistent with a fort, and entirely consistent with a Neolithic causewayed enclosure, especially as there are entrances north, south, east and west. Forts want to keep people out, so have restricted entrances. Causewayed enclosures wanted to welcome people in, so have numerous wide entrances - as Garn Goch does.
He hazarded foundations might be Iron Age, Neolithic or, he said, may be mediaeval, Is it reasonable to expect an archaeologist to know whether something is 600 years old or 6,000 years old?
He concluded that some central foundations are of a round house, yet only a moment's observation shows that they lie about a metre below the level of the post-glacial pond (in 1906 40 x 15 metres), now bog, and they are where the stream began to run down the hillside. It is an elongated oval, not round at all, and makes much more sense as a pool for ceremonial baptisms or votive offerings.
He dismissively described the main long cairn as 'a mass of rubble' and 'completely ruinous' because it showed 'no trace of revetment', and that lays clear his lack of knowledge and interest in anything that does not have Iron Age revetted walls, ramparts and posterns. His unhelpful conclusion is that it is 'anomalous' (his word), yet it is only 'anomalous' if it's an Iron Age fort, although Tre'r Ceiri also has a large cairn within its Iron Age fort walls. At a religious site, a large cairn is the very opposite of 'anomalous'. He guesses the cairn must be Neolithic or Bronze Age, again showing his ignorance about funerary practices outside the Iron Age.
He said 'there are short lines of small boulders deliberately placed', but then said they don't 'fall into any defined pattern', so left them 'unsurveyed'. If there was one thing to be properly surveyed, surely it was the 'walls'? Observation shows the stones were anything but 'deliberately placed', and as to 'short lines' they run for 1.7 kms. Hardly short, surely?
Of four metre long, 0.8m high mounds, he suggested they were 'intended to encourage the growth of rabbits'. It beggars belief!
He concluded that it is 'unlikely' the two forts were 'occupied at the same time', but, somehow, thought they were also 'roughly contemporary'. He stated that there was no established track between them when, in fact, there clearly is, even today. He seemed confused, and, consequently, is confusing.
The RCAM in Wales (as it was then) certainly did not get good value for its 'generous grant' to fund this 'research', and it is surprising that Coflein, BBNP and others have regarded it as authoritative without interrogating its weak content. That Dyfed Archaeological Trust has not taken the opportunity to undertake a comprehensive investigative project on the site is surprising considering that in 2019 the West Country got a £1 million Lottery grant for Iron Age hillfort archaeology and rejuvenation.
Other, archaeological (for example, the Archwilio entry for Garn Goch ) and non-archaeological authorities have continued to take Hogg's opinion without questioning it, or, it might be suggested, some even reading the original article. However, it also must be said that if Garn Goch were accepted as merely one of almost 700 Welsh Iron Age hillforts, then it is perfectly understandable that it has received scant attention from publicly funded heritage and archaeological organisations, and that Brecon Beacons National Park, its current managers, should do their best to promote it as such.
Left Top: Tre'r Ceiri on top of a steep sloped, high mountain. Left Bottom: Garn Goch in gently rolling countryside. Middle: Tre'r Ceiri well preserved Iron Age inner gate. Right Top: Tre'r Ceiri well preserved Iron Age postern. Right Bottom: Tre'r Ceiri clear foundations of 150 Iron Age roundhouses. See Copyrights.