Castell Mawr, Llanboidy (The Gatehouse Record)

Castell Mawr, Llanboidy

In the community of Llanboidy.
In the historic county of Carmarthenshire.
Modern authority of Carmarthenshire.
Preserved county of Dyfed.

OS Map Grid Reference: SN21912311
Latitude 51.87801° Longitude -4.58874°

Castell Mawr, Llanboidy has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Castell Mawr, Llanboidy, comprises earthworks of a medieval motte and bailey castle, laid out along the crest of a north-west to south-east ridge rising above a stream confluence. The ditched motte is a subcircular steep-sided mound, 36m in diameter and rising some 2.3m to a summit area 14.5-16m across, and has a subrectangular court, or bailey, some 46m north-south by 30m, defined by scarps, attached on the west. (Coflein)

Castell mawr is a well-preserved motte and bailey. The motte stands 2.6m high with a summit diameter of 15m; there is some slight animal erosion around the top. The surrounding ditch is best preserved on the S East (width 6.6m depth 0.8m) and N west sides. The bailey extends to the N west of the motte, with the bank up to 1m in height falling off to natural sloping ground. ER Evans 1984 (Dyfed Archaeological Trust HER)

The monument comprises the remains of a motte and bailey castle, a military stronghold built during the medieval period. A motte and bailey castle comprises a large conical or pyramidal mound of soil or stone (the motte) surrounded by, or adjacent to, one or more embanked enclosures (the bailey). Both may be surrounded by wet or dry ditches and could be further strengthened with palisades, revetments, and/or a tower on top of the motte. The motte is grass covered and measures 15ft high and 60ft in diameter across the top. The bailey, which is nearly rectangular, is on the west and stretches 40 yds to the west of the motte. The bailey bank has a maximum height of 3ft above the outside ground but is level with the interior. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

The CADW scheduled monument record number is CM098.
The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 304225.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 5079.

Books
- Morgan, Gerald, 2008, Castles in Wales: A Handbook (Talybont: Y Lolfa Cyf.) p. 236 (listed)
  Davis, Paul, 2000, A Company of Forts. A Guide to the Medieval Castles of West Wales (Gomer Press) p. 35
  Salter, Mike, 1996, The Castles of South West Wales (Malvern) p. 46 (slight)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 56
  Richard, A.J., 1935, in Lloyd, J.E. (ed), History of Carmathenshire (Cardiff) Vol. 1 p. 273
  Rees, Wm, 1932, Map of South Wales and the Border in the 14th century (Ordnance Survey) (A handbook to the map was published in 1933)
  RCAHMW, 1917, An inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Carmarthenshire (HMSO) p. 75 no. 218 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1963, 'Early castles in Wales and the Marches: a preliminary list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 112 p. 77-124

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.
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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 06/07/2016 09:08:28

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