Llwynduris Castle Mound

Description

A presumed medieval castle mount, occupying a cut-off knoll, isolated by minor watercources to the north & south and facing out across the Teifi flood plain to the west: a steep-sided circular mound about 35m in diameter & 5.8m -10.2m high, ditched to the east against rising ground, having a summit area some 10m across. (Coflein)

This is a motte- there is nowhere to put a bailey-on a projection from the high ground fringing the Teifi valley on the N.E. The hillside is remarkably wet, and the little knob on which the motte stands is marked off on the N.W. by the gully of a brooklet, and on the E. or S.E. by a small watercourse beginning in a boggy spring on the saddle itself. On the S.W. there is a plain fall to the flood-meadows. The motte is tall and narrow-properly, for the slope on the N.E. towards the modern road is high and near at hand it is made of earth, and a small old excavation at the top of the scarp to the S. reveals no other material. The site is not easy to find, being in a dense plantation and further camouflaged by a large rhododendron. Dimensions Diameters about 25 ft. N.E. and S.W., 30 ft. N.W. and S.E. Scarp S.W. (max., to flats) 28 ft., perhaps 15 ft. artificial. N.E. (min., to saddle) 14 ft. The natural rise on the opposite side of the saddle is obscured by the road, but it goes up 10 ft. in a very short distance. (King 1956)

The monument comprises the remains of a motte and ditch, dating to the medieval period (c. 1066 -1540 AD). A motte is a large conical or pyramidal mound of soil and/or stone, usually surrounded by either a wet or dry ditch, and surmounted by a tower constructed of timber or stone. Llwynduris Castle Mound is a steep-sided circular mound measuring c.35m in diameter and between 5.8m and 10.2m high, with a summit c.10m across containing a hollow c.2m by 1m. The site occupies a knoll isolated by minor watercourses to the north and south and facing out across the Teifi flood-plain to the west. A ditch is present where the ground rises away from the site on the east. (Scheduling Report)

Comments

Beside the road with good views along the valley of the Trefi, although the location could also be that of a barrow built to be viewed from the valley floor. This may have been a taxation point or a mound representing the knightly status of a nearby tenant farmer but the lack of a bailey means it cannot have been a residential site of itself.