Hen Gastell - Carnwyllion Castle - Llanelli - Wales. Great Britain. - Castles on Waymarking.com

"Carnwyllion Castle Llanelli a monument comprising the remains of a medieval motte and bailey castle partially submerged within the reservoir of the former Old Castle Tinplate works. Roughly 30m in diameter. Motte identified as the likely site of the historic Castle of Carnwyllion, destroyed by Rhys Ieuanc of Dinefwr (d.1222)during his attack on Kidwelly and the Gower in 1215.
This mound can be seen today in Pond Twym, once the reservoir of the Old Castle Works, People's Park, Llanelli. The castle may have been established in the 1090s and attacked by Rhys ap Gruffydd in 1190 and Rhys Ieuanc in 1215.

The building of a motte-and-bailey castle was the first tactic of the invading Normans. They would invade an area and immediately build a motte-and-bailey castle from which they could dominate the surrounding populace, as William the Conqueror had done at Hastings in 1066. Charles Henry Glascodine tells us:
a motte consisted principally of a mound of earth thrown up from the ground surrounding it with a flat top-a truncated cone, sometimes large and sometimes smaller. The digging away of the earth around it became a ditch accentuating the height of the mound. It was crowned by wooden erection. Baulks of timber, trunks of trees, pointing diagonally upwards, were planted in the side of the mound all round it. On the flat surface of the mound all round it to ends of timber were laid a platform which formed a floor of the building above – a dwelling, a castle. Text Source: (visit link)

Accessibility: Partial access Condition: Completely ruined Admission Charge?: no Website: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log User Rating   01/01/2011 veritas vita visited it