Hen Castell, Llangattock (The Gatehouse Record)

Hen Castell, Llangattock

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Hen Gastell

In the community of Llangattock.
In the historic county of Brecknockshire.
Modern authority of Powys.
Preserved county of Powys.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO21281657
Latitude 51.84213° Longitude -3.14397°

Hen Castell, Llangattock has been described as a certain Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Overgrown square moated platform all that remains of C14 manor house. A rectangular platform, c.21.5m by 18m, is defined by a partially waterfilled moat, c.41m square overall. On the S part of the platform traces of a possible tower, c.20m by 12.5m have been noted. (Derived from Coflein)

The ancient park of Kille-Lan, or Cîl-le Lan, now called Llangattock Park, was originally of great extent, and formed an appendage to the castle of Crickhowel ... In the upper part of the park are some very small remains of a moated building, at which place a neat and elegant shooting-box has been built for the Duke of Beaufort. (Lewis)

The monument comprises the remains of a well-preserved medieval moated homestead. The possibly once rectangular mound is surrounded by flat bottomed ditch. The top of the mound is about 3m high from the ditch bottom. The mound is a mass of fallen masonry, with fairly large pieces of course rag stone. The edges are generally a little higher than the centre, and a straight wall face can be made out for a length of 3m on the south side, suggesting it was once a rectangular keep measuring around 15m by 10m. (Scheduling Report)

Comments

Some of the remains seen within the moat may relate to the early C19 structure reported by Lewis but the site is older than that and may well have been a late medieval hunting lodge or keepers lodge dressed up with martial symbolism to deter poachers and assert lordship rights.

Sources of information, references and further reading

The CADW scheduled monument record number is BR056.
The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 306244.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 688.

Books
- Davis, Paul, R., 2011, The Forgotten Castles of Wales (Almeley: Logaston Press) p. 93-95
  Morgan, Gerald, 2008, Castles in Wales: A Handbook (Talybont: Y Lolfa Cyf.) p. 232 (listed)
  Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles of Mid Wales (Malvern) p. 28
  Pettifer, Adrian, 2000, Welsh Castles, A Guide by Counties (Boydell Press) p. 18
  Remfry, Paul, 1998, Castles of Breconshire (Logaston Press) p. 167-8
  Reid, Alan, 1998, Castles of Wales (John Jones Publishing) p. 93
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 19
  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)
  Lewis, Samual, 1849, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales online copy
Periodical Articles
- King, D.J.Cathcart, 1972, 'The Field Archaeology of mottes; Eine kurze übersicht' Château Gaillard Vol. 5 p. 101-112
  Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1970, 'Castles in Wales and the Marches (Additions and corrections to lists published in 1963 and 1967)' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 119 p. 119-124
  King, D.J.C., 1968-9, 'Two further castles in Breconshire' Brycheiniog Vol. 13 p. 155 online copy
  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
  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 (reject)

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 05/07/2016 17:34:45

¤¤¤¤¤

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