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The comprehensive gazetteer and bibliography of the medieval castles, fortifications and palaces of England, Wales, the Islands.

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Pen y Castell, Garreg Olau

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Caer Oleu; Careg Oleu Rhiw Dafnau Maenan

In the community of Llanddoged and Maenan.
In the historic county of Caernarfonshire.
Modern authority of Conwy.
Preserved county of Gwynedd.

OS Map Grid Reference: SH79386660
Latitude 53.18257° Longitude -3.80753°

Pen y Castell, Garreg Olau has been described as a probable Timber Castle, and also as a probable Masonry Castle.

There are masonry footings remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

On a narrow ridge with precipitous sides. Access from the N is prevented by a ditch about 5' deep cut across the ridge. S of this is a D-shaped enclosure with a strong wall dry built in rubble masonry and still standing 3' high in places. There is no entrance. The enclosure contains a small ditch, possibly the foundation trench of a round wooden tower. S of this enclosure the edges of the ridge are reinforced with stone walling, generally poorly preserved except on the NW. The enclosed area is divided into 3 sections by natural crags. The structure may possibly be the result of native adaptation of the "motte and bailey" layout to an unusual site. Much ruined. (Gwynedd Archaeological Trust HER ref. RCAHMW)

Pen y Castell compares in some measure with two Iron Age forts, Caer Seion on Conway Mountain and Garm Bodvan. Both feature a small strong inner bank set at one end, or side, of a large defended area. (Gwynedd Archaeological Trust HER ref. OS record)

Comments

This is not a Norman castle but local welsh lords do seem to have been more likely to reuse Iron Age site which had been built by their direct ancestors and which often maintained some cultural importance. Whether or not this happened here is likely only to be answered by extensive destructive archaeology.

Links to archaeological and architectural databases, mapping and other online resources

Data >	Coflein	County HER	Scheduling
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	Historic Wales	V. O. B.	Geology	LIDAR
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio

Sources of information, references and further reading

The CADW scheduled monument record number is CN041.
The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 303134.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 686.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Jeff Thomas's Castles of Wales
Books
- Davis, Paul, R., 2011, The Forgotten Castles of Wales (Almeley: Logaston Press) p. 52-54
  Davis, Paul R., 2007, Castles of the Welsh Princes (Y Lolfa) p. 65
  Pettifer, Adrian, 2000, Welsh Castles, A Guide by Counties (Boydell Press) p. 36
  Avent, Richard, 1983, Castles of the Princes of Gwynedd (Cardiff)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 35
  RCAHMW, 1956, A Survey and Inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Caernarvonshire Vol. 1: East (HMSO) p. 168 no. 609 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1967, 'Masonry castles in Wales and the Marches: a list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 116 p. 71-132 (possible)
  1882, Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 37 p. 333 online copy

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales, the four welsh archaeological trusts and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain Designated Historic Asset Descriptive Information from The Welsh Historic Environment Service (Cadw), licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown.
Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Lidar coverage in the UK is not complete. The button above will give an idea of the area of coverage. Higher resolution lidar images in both DSM and DTM form may be available from Lle A geo-Portal for Wales (click the preview tag to bring up a map and then select format byclicking on the small blue diamond in the top right corner of the map.)

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

This record last updated 02/07/2016 09:37:47

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