Din Lligwy Settlement

Iron-work and Minor Settlement

Din Lligwy – The Hillfort of the Lligwy  – The settlement here comprised two round and seven rectangular huts, defended by a small but very strong wall of limestone blocks, 4 – 5 feet thick, which enclosed an area of about ½ acres (c.0.2ha). Several of the hut walls still survive to a height of around six feet (2m), and an entrance is clearly visible on the north-east. Following archaeological investigations at the site, two of the rectangular huts were found to contain a total of six iron-smelting hearths, and the settlement was tentatively dated to the fourth century AD, close to the end of the Romano-British era. Coal used in the smelting process was brought here from mines in Flintshire, a distance of over 70 miles to the east, its transport no doubt achieved by sea (Hawkes, p.284; Branigan, p.302; Liversidge, p.201).

A considerable group of Romano-British villages in Anglesey has been studied. The best known of these is Din Lligwy (A.C., 1908). It seems to have been a foundation of the third century on the site of an earlier and larger village; and although most of its houses are wholly un-Roman round huts, others are more or less rectangular, and the wall that surrounds the whole village is laid out in a polygonal shape whose straight sides are no doubt a testimony to Roman influence. The same combination of round hut and straight walls reappears on the mainland at Rhostryfan (A.C., 1922, 1923; Wheeler, Prehist. and Rom. Wales, 264)” (Collingwood, pp.155/6)

References for Din Lligwy

  • The Shell Guide to British Archaeology by Jaquetta Hawkes (London, 1986);
  • Roman Britain – Life in an Imperial Province by Keith Branigan (London, 1980);
  • Britain in the Roman Empire by Joan Liversidge (London 1968);
  • The Archaeology of Roman Britain by R.G. Collingwood (Methuen, London, 1930); 

Map References for Din Lligwy

NGRef: SH496862 OSMap: LR114

Roman Roads near Din Lligwy

None identified

Sites near Din Lligwy Settlement