Twmbarlwm Fires
Forest fires have raged for one and a half weeks on the mountainside from Cwmcarn, around the Darren and Medart areas and extending around to the Risca side of Twmbarlwm. Thankfully, at the time of writing, the worst of the fires seem to be over and there was also a welcome shower of rain this morning.
Fire crews from miles around have fought the fires 24/7 helped by helicopter support who have collected water from Pantyrheos reservoir to help douse the flames. NRW have also been there digging out fire breaks and clearing brash from the path of the fires.
We can’t thank all these people enough for their commitment and hard work in trying to stop the fires from spreading and a huge thank you also goes out to those in the community who helped supply the fire fighters with refreshments during their long shifts on the mountain.
It has been a dramatic sight and many photographs have been published together with opinions on social media about the alleged cause. CTS will not take part in this conjecture and will await statements from official sources.
For the first week of the fires the flames didn’t reach the the hillfort on the top of Twmbarlwm but in the last few days it has spread across the top, burning the vegetation off half the Motte itself and a third of the inner area of the Bailey has been burned down to the underlying soil.
We are hoping that this devastation will not affect our ongoing archaeological research too much – but we await the opinions of the experts. The fence around the base of the Twmp and some of the steps will need some repairs which, no doubt, the society will instigate as soon as possible
Once again – many thanks to all those who fought the fires in an attempt to save our landscape, wildlife and heritage.
Here’s some photos taken to illustrate the damage to our much loved mountain.
Here’s a couple of other galleries taken earlier in the struggle against the fires
