Breidden Hill

Breidden Hill

Rodney's Pillar on Breidden Hill

Breidden Hill is an extinct volcanic hill, located on the border between Shropshire, England and Powys, Wales, near the town of Llandrinio. The peak of the hill reaches to 1199 ft.^[1] Footpaths which lead up to the summit provide excellent 360 degree views over the Shropshire Plain and Mid-Wales.

Breidden Hill is one of five peaks with neighbouring Moel y Golfa, which is the highest at 404m (1324 ft)^{[citation needed]}, which is a "Marilyn". The others are: Cefn y Castell, also known as Middletown Hill, Kemsters Hill and the 800 plus feet high Bausley Hill with its Iron Age galleried fortification. The five hills are sometimes collectively known as the Breidden Hills, and form a northern extension of the Long Mountain.

There are remains of a British Iron Age hillfort en route which may have been the site of the last stand of Caractacus. Rodney's Pillar at the top was built by the gentlemen of Montgomeryshire who supplied oak wood from the area and shipped them down the River Severn to Bristol where Admiral Rodney's naval fleet was built. Beginning around 1789, for many years members of the Breidden Society, founded by John Dovaston (1740–1808), met near Rodney's Pillar for an annual festival of food, drink, poetry, and song; records of their meetings for 1809-15 are preserved at Harvard University (Houghton Library MS Eng 1168).

There is a large quarry on the western and northern sides of Breidden Hill. The rock is a thick gabbroic-dolerite laccolith, which is a source of roadstone^[2].

See also

• List of hill forts in Wales
• Bredon Hill and Bredon village in Worcestershire

References

1. ^ Google Books: Handbook for travellers in North Wales
2. ^ Rawson, P.F. and Brenchley P.J. (2006) The Geology of England and Wales Geological Society of London ISBN 978 1862392007 p.63 in Google Books

Further reading

• Musson, C. R.; Britnell, W. J.; Smith, A. G. (1991), The Breiddin Hillfort: A later prehistoric settlement in the Welsh Marches, Council for British Archaeology Research Report No 76, ISBN 1 872414 12 5, http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/library/cba/rr76.cfm?CFID=573996&CFTOKEN=39545028 

External links

• BBC Wales feature on the Iron Age hillfort
• Photos of Breidden Hill and surrounding area on geograph
• Shropshire Geology website

Coordinates: 52°43′N 3°03′W / 52.717°N 3.05°W / 52.717; -3.05