Castell Trefadog (The Gatehouse Record)

Castell Trefadog

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Porth Trefadog

In the community of Llanfaethlu.
In the historic county of Anglesey.
Modern authority of Anglesey.
Preserved county of Gwynedd.

OS Map Grid Reference: SH29088590
Latitude 53.34228° Longitude -4.56874°

Castell Trefadog has been described as a probable Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Very heavily-defended coastal site. Recent excavation revealed the foundations of C14 stone house inside an enclosure. An unusual site, perhaps akin to Penmaen Castle, Gower. Some have suggested a Viking origin for the site, others call it native welsh. Undergoing coastal erosion. In CARN listed as early medieval promontory fort, prehistoric coastal promontory fort and unknown fort.

A natural coastal knoll has been enhanced with a rampart and ditch to form a promontory fort. The knoll has been eroded by the sea on the north-west and north-east and only a near square area about 18m across remains of what may have been a rather larger enclosure. The 1.8m deep ditch on the south-east side takes advantage of a natural gully and on this side the rampart rises 3.4m from the ditch bottom. Slighter banks on the noth-east and north-west sides are probably old field boundaries. No finds are known from the site and its original date is unknown. It is perhaps most likely to be a later Prehistoric or Roman period fort. The traditional identification as a medieval earthwork castle ('Castell - site of': on OS County series 1st edition (Anglesey V.12 1889)) is perhaps unlikely. (Coflein–John Wiles 13.08.07)

A defended site with the sea on the N and W sides, a natural gully to the SE and a massive bank and ditch to the SW. The site has recently been excavated, and was shown to have comprised a level promontory defended by a bank, now surviving to a height of 2 m, inside a ditch 13 m wide and 4 m deep. The interior occupies some 250 sq. m, but some on the NW side has been lost through erosion of the cliff face. A large rectangular structure with rounded corners occupies the NW part of the interior. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

The CADW scheduled monument record number is AN082.
The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 95571.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 1.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Jeff Thomas's Castles of Wales
Books
- Morgan, Gerald, 2008, Castles in Wales: A Handbook (Talybont: Y Lolfa Cyf.) p. 231 (listed)
  Pettifer, Adrian, 2000, Welsh Castles, A Guide by Counties (Boydell Press) p. 7
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 2
  RCAHMW, 1937, An inventory of the ancient monuments in Anglesey (HMSO) p. 68-9 no. 3 online copy
Periodical Articles
- King, D.J.C. and Alcock, L., 1969, 'Ringworks in England and Wales' Château Gaillard Vol. 3 p. 90-127 p. 90-127
  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 05/07/2016 10:41:44

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