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Capel Garmon fire dog
Two rectangular-sectioned vertical shafts, standing on semi-circular arched feet formed of thick strips, and connected just above the feet by a horizontal bar thickened toward the middle. Each of the vertical shafts is bent over at the top to form a neck, to which is fastened the horned head of an ox and a mane resembling a classical helmet crest with seven large bun shaped knobs spread along the top; they are also ornamented down each side by a broad ribbon of iron bent into two semi-circular loops, with spiral coils at the top and bottom, and held in position by three rivets with large bun shaped heads on each side. There are remains of decorative strips fastened by rivets, which also have bun shaped heads filling the angles between the vertical shafts and the horizontal bar and between the former and their semi-circular feet.
It may have taken the blacksmith three years to make this firedog, from smelting the iron to the finished product. It is made up of 85 separate pieces of wrought iron and was once one of a pair, marking the central hearth of an Iron Age chieftain’s roundhouse.
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Site Name: Carreg Goediog Farm, Capel Garmon
Notes: Found lying on its side in a beat bog approximately 3/4 of a mile SW of Capel Garmon Church, with a large stone at each end, having probably been a votive deposit in a pool, in what afterwards became a turbary on the above farm.
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