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Napps Camp is a prehistoric promontory fort located on the Welsh coast, positioned to exploit natural coastal defences. The site occupies a headland formed from Paleozoic sedimentary rocks of Silurian age, whose steep cliffs and rocky outcrops provide formidable natural barriers on three sides. This geological foundation has protected the monument for thousands of years and would have made the site naturally defensible to its prehistoric occupants.
The fort is enclosed by earthwork defences constructed across the landward side of the promontory, a characteristic design for this class of Iron Age or Late Bronze Age settlement. Such promontory forts typically served as secure strongholds where communities could retreat with livestock and goods during times of conflict or social instability. The coastal location suggests its inhabitants benefited from maritime access and the marine resources of the surrounding waters.
Napps Camp is protected as a scheduled monument by Cadw, the Welsh heritage body, under reference CM019. The site remains largely as an earthwork monument in the landscape, with its position on Silurian bedrock and facing the sea making it an important survival of prehistoric defensive settlement strategy on the Welsh coast. The natural topography continues to define the monument's character much as it would have done for its Iron Age occupants.
Napps Camp is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference CM019. View the official record →
Napps Camp is a prehistoric promontory fort located on the Welsh coast, positioned to exploit natural coastal defences. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference CM019.
Napps Camp dates from the prehistoric period, and is classified as a promontory fort - coastal. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Napps Camp is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Cadw — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Wales. The official designation reference is CM019.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Morfa-Bychan Burial Chambers, Cairns, House Sites & Fields (0.6 km), Garness Farm, round barrow 400m to SW of (1.5 km), Castle-Lloyd Camp (2.2 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Napps Camp's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Napps Camp stands on Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, bedrock that formed in the Silurian. The rock here is sedimentary rocks.