Colwyn Castle Roman Fort

Neronian Auxiliary Fort (AD 54–68)

The fort at Colwyn Castle is thought to represent a Roman auxiliary camp established during the Roman thrust through mid-Wales to confine the northern edge of the Silurian territory in the pre-Flavian (pre AD 69) era. A pottery assemblage recovered during excavations demonstrated its continuation as a military site into the early second century.

It is a round angled, rectangular earthwork, 170m north-east to south-west by 160m, its north-east side overlain by earthworks of a medieval castle (Nprn92387). Excavations in 1975 and a watching brief on construction work in 1972 identified pits and possibly burnt timber buildings. No evidence of a vicus has been identified.

Colwyn Castle is mentioned in documentary sources in 1144 (and possibly again in 1315) and partly overlies the site of a Roman fort (NPRN 401567). The surviving remains include a ditched and counterscarped circular enclosure, c.65m in diameter set within, and at the junction of, two contiguous sub rectangular ditched and banked enclosures approximately 280m by 160m. The castle is thought to have been reconstructed in stone in about 1240 and to have been demolished in 1629.

Map References for Colwyn Castle

NGRef: SO1053 OSMap: LR148

Roman Roads near Colwyn Castle

None identified

Sites near Colwyn Castle Roman Fort