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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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Castell Abereinon

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Cilcraig; Cil y Craig

In the community of Llandysul.
In the historic county of Cardiganshire.
Modern authority of Ceredigion.
Preserved county of Dyfed.

OS Map Grid Reference: SN454427
Latitude 52.06212° Longitude -4.25473°

Castell Abereinon has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Documentary sources note the existence of an earthwork castle in this general area. This has been identified with the hill above Cil Craig farm but there is no evidence for a motte on the hill though outcrops of hard beds of rock on the hill's summit give the appearance of a costellated hill. CAS 1988. Meyrick mentions a "mouted tumulus" which he likens to Castell Gwynionedd, which is a ring work. Site destroyed. (Dyfed Archaeological Trust HER)

At the junction of the Cletwr with the Einon; 'another circular moated tumulus, resembling (Castell Gwynionydd), now called Cil y graig, but formerly Castell Abereinon, which the Welsh Chronicle says was built by Malgwn, in the year 1205' (Merrick, p. 192) (King, 1956)

Comments

Antiquarian reference to motte ("A circular moated tumulus, now called Cil y Craig" Meyrick), but nothing survives. Suggested as a site for the Castell Abereinion recorded in 1169 and 1206, as a castle built by Rhys ap Griffith, which may otherwise be Domen Las. Armitage writes it is marked on the 25-inch O.M. but King writes he has been all over the area and found no motte and that no edition of the Ordnance Map marks a mound. There is a quarry nearby and King suggests that it is possible that this reported mound may have been quarried away.
Abereinon and Cilgraig exist as placenames on the modern map both as north of the Afon Einon. On the 1889 OS map Cil-graig is marked just north of the road crossing (but not as an antiquity) and Aber-Einon is south of the river. The Aber-Einon farmstead is close to the parish church. It may be that 'received' wisdom about castles being hilltop structures has lead to people looking on the wrong side of the Einon for this historic castle site.

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

Data >		County HER
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 County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 1837.

Books
- Davis, Paul, 2000, A Company of Forts. A Guide to the Medieval Castles of West Wales (Gomer Press) p. 44
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 48, 558
  Owen, Henry (ed), 1936, The Description of Pembrokeshire (London) Vol. 4 p. 488-9
  Armitage, Ella, 1912, The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles (London: John Murray) p. 301 online copy
  Meyrick, Samuel Rush, 1907, The History and Antiquities of the County of Cardigan (Brecon) p. 192
  Meyrick, Sir Samuel Rush, 1810, The History and Antiquities of the County of Cardigan (London) p. 146
  Lewis, Samual, 1849, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales online copy
Periodical Articles
- Avent, Richard, 1994, 'Castles of the Welsh Princes' Château Gaillard Vol. 16 p. 11-17
  Thorburn, J., 1987, ‘Castell Abereinon, Llandysul’ Archaeology in Wales Vol. 27 p. 55
  King, D.J.C., 1956, 'The Castles of Cardiganshire' Ceredigion Vol. 3 p. 68 no. III (vanished) online copy

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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.)

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This record last updated before 1 February 2016

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