In some recent blog posts, I have made my case for the Dindraithou fort of Arthur and Cadwy being a relocation for one of the Cadbury forts - and, most particularly, that of Cadbury Castle in Somerset.
However, in looking over maps of Dindraithou (= Dart's Castle next to Watchet in West Somerset) and the various Cadbury forts, I noticed something peculiar: Dindraithou and Cadbury Hill in North Somerset, often distinguished from Cadbury Castle by referring to it as Cadbury-Congresbury, have near them several Cleeve place-names.
Why might this be significant? Well, because it might show us that Dindraithou was wrongly identified with Cadbury Hill precisely because both had nearby Cleeve names. Or that this correspondence provided creative license to the author of Carantoc's/Carannog's biography to transfer Cadbury Hill to where it was needed to play a primary role in the saint's life.
Cadbury Hill has been shown through excavation to have been refortified and occupied during Arthur's time.
While this is a very slender basis upon which to hang anything, if the Cleeve place-names did permit the placement of Arthur at Dindraithou with Cadwy, and the actual site where Arthur was thought to be residing was Cadbury Hill, we are perhaps further justified in looking towards the much grander Cadbury Castle in South Somerset as the proper Arthurian center. This is especially true if I right in identifying Uther Pendragon with one of the Dark Age Geraints of Dumnonia, and Uther's Pen Kawell as a reference to the Cal (Cawel) River with its source at Pen Ridge.
However, given sea level change since Arthur's time, it is quite possible Cadbury Hill at Congresbury may have itself been on or very near a shore and so that fort was the original Dindraethou. The name may have been transferred in legend to Dart's Castle.
Here are some links on Cadbury Hill, as well as relevant maps.
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