Caer Beris

Caer Beris stands on a gentle rise near the village of Cilmeri in Powys, mid-Wales. It is the remains of a small medieval earthwork castle built without the usual surrounding defensive wall called a bailey. The mound was raised from local soil and stone in the late 11th or 12th century by Welsh builders who adopted the Norman style of defence introduced after the Conquest. The site is recognised by Cadw, the Welsh historic environment service, under reference SAM BR093. It belongs to a larger group of similar mounds spread across the Welsh borderlands, including parts of Shropshire, Cheshire and Herefordshire. These earthworks form the biggest cluster of such monuments anywhere in Britain. Visitors find a grassy mound about three metres high with a flat top and slight ditch around its base. The view stretches over rolling farmland towards the Black Mountains. There are no buildings left, only the shape of the defences in the earth. The quiet spot is reached along farm tracks and footpaths from Cilmeri.