GATEHOUSE
The comprehensive gazetteer and bibliography of the medieval castles, fortifications and palaces of England, Wales, the Islands.
 
 
Home
The listings
Other Info
Books
Links
Downloads
Contact
 
Print Page 
 
Next Record 
Previous Record 
Back to list 

St Quentins Castle, Llanblethian

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
St Quintins; Caer Dynnaf; Cowbridge

In the community of Cowbridge With Llanblethian.
In the historic county of Glamorgan.
Modern authority of Vale of Glamorgan.
Preserved county of South Glamorgan.

OS Map Grid Reference: SS98917417
Latitude 51.45745° Longitude -3.45635°

St Quentins Castle, Llanblethian has been described as a certain Masonry Castle.

There are major building remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law*.
Description

The ruinous rectilinear stone walled castle enclosure, c.64m east to west by 40-60m, at Llanblethian Castle is set on a spur above steep slopes above the River Thaw. The encience, with a twin-towered gatehouse and two other towers on the east, and the entrance facade are thought to be early fourteenth century. A rectangular tower within is believed to be earlier. The castle is first mentioned 1234 and is believed to have been established around 1102. It was ruinous by 1741 (Coflein)

About 450m NE of Llanblethian church on spur of land above loop in River Thaw.
Although known as St Quintin's Castle, after the first Lords of Llanblethian, the St Quintin family were dispossessed in 1233 by Richard Siward, upon whose outlawry in 1245, the castle passed to Richard de Clare, Lord of Glamorgan. Only the ruinous keep of C12 can be associated with the St Quintin family. The gatehouse belongs with the newly fortified enclosure probably begun circa 1312 by Gilbert III de Clare, killed at Bannockburn in 1314. There are stylistic links with Caerphilly castle. From C15 onwards castle was used as a prison.
Gatehouse (set forward from curtain wall) in local grey lias stone with dressings of buff Sutton stone. Central Gothic archway (provision for portcullis) flanked by towers with splayed corners. Cruciform arrow loops at ground floor level, most of dressed stone from windows and upper loops lost. Smaller arch in rear face of gatehouse. The remains of the curtain wall enclose an irregular quadrilateral about 52m by 50m; foundations of towers at angles N and S of gatehouse, and turret to NW. In centre of enclosure, remains of C12 keep. (Listed Building Report)

The castle was originally built c1312., although an earlier castle on the site is indicated by a large overgrown mound of rubble marking the remains of a large rectangular keep, presumably raised in the 12th century by the St Quintins, the early lords of Llanblethian. It is situated at the end of a spur with steep natural defences on all sides except the east. It is now partly destroyed/ruinous. (Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust HER)

Mainly early C14 remains of a large courtyard castle, including a massive twin-towered gatehouse. Probably built by Gilbert de Clare (the Last, d. 1314). (CADW)
Links to archaeological and architectural databases, mapping and other online resources

Data >
Coflein   County HER   Scheduling   Listing    
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
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.
*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of the described site.

This record last updated 20/04/2017 05:13:51
Home | Books | Links | The Fortifications and Castles | Help | Downloads | Author Information | Contact

¤¤¤¤¤