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

Gadlys, Llanilid

In the community of Llanharan.
In the historic county of Glamorgan.
Modern authority of Rhondda Cynon Taff.
Preserved county of Mid Glamorgan.

OS Map Grid Reference: SS97898113
Latitude 51.51991° Longitude -3.47309°

Gadlys, Llanilid has been described as a Timber Castle but is rejected as such.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

An enclosure measuring 51.8m on the N, fronting a wet marshy area, 42.6m (W), 62.4m (S) and 50.2m (E). An internal scarp isolates the W third of the site connected with a now-vanished building. The entrance was just W of the SE angle. (Coflein)

Gadlys, listed under Medieval Moated Sites, is about 200 x 150ft. Much eroded, it has no known history. (Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust HER)

The monument comprises the remains of a well-preserved medieval moated homestead. This site may have been the administrative centre of the sublordship of Ruthin during the 13th century, possibly superseding the motte castle nearby (GM080). Its situation in low ground is a typical one for moated sites, and water could have been let into the moat from the boggy area to the north. All that remains of the site are low banks on the west, south and east sides of a roughly rectangular area. Slight vestiges of the moat which once surrounded it are visible on the west. (Scheduling Report)

Comments

Tentatively dated to 1245-1314. Spurgeon writes that Gadlys signifies military camp, castle bailey, or courtyard, and as late as 1951 the OS map designated it as a 'Roman Camp'. The site is probably the replacement to Llanilid castle but there is no evidence it was fortified.

Links to archaeological and architectural databases, mapping and other online resources

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

Sources of information, references and further reading

The CADW scheduled monument record number is GM081.
The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 300097.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 00386m.

Books
- RCAHMW, 1982, An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan Vol. 3 Part 2: Secular Non-defensive Monuments (London: HMSO) MS5 p. 91-3
Periodical Articles
- Spurgeon, C.J. with Roberts, D.J. and Thomas, H.J., 1999, 'Supposed Castles in Glamorgan; A review' Archaeology in Wales Vol. 39 27-40

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 06/07/2016 17:21:57

¤¤¤¤¤