1. The Trawscoed or Trawsgoed Roman fort is an auxillary fort overlooking the point where the Roman road between Llanio and Pen-llwyn crosses the River Ystwyth. First identified from the air in 1959 as a series of parchmarks, subsequent excavation and ground and geophysical survey have done much to develop our understanding of the nature and extent of the site.

First built in the late 70s AD there appears to have been a period of abandonment towards the end of the century, followed by re-occupation and final abandonment between 125 and 130 AD. It covers an area of approximately 2.0ha enclosed by a ditch and rampart with rounded corners and a gateway in each side. The fort interior was filled with rows of barracks which may have housed up to 800 infantry or a smaller number of cavalry. The headquarters building, commander's house and granaries, were set out along the central range. There are indications of extramural settlement and other anciliary features on all sides of the fort. Both the fort and its suburbs were rebuilt at least once. Up to around 2,000 people may have lived in the settlement.

Sources: St Joseph in the Journal of Roman Studies 51 (1961), 128
Jarrett 'The Roman Frontier in Wales' 2nd edition (1969), 113-6
Davies in the Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 31 (1984), 259-92
in Archaeology in Wales 24 (1984), 50-1; 25 (1985), 27-8; 26 (1986), 43-4; 27 (1987), 44; 28 (1988), 58-9
in 1991 in the Fourteenth International Roman Frontier Studies Conference in 1986 (1991), 341-51
in The Cardigan County History I (1994), 300-302
Hopwell 'Roman Fort Environs: Trawscoed & Llanio' GAT Report No. 623 (2006)
'Roman Fort Environs: Trawscoed & Erglodd' GAT Report No. 667 (2007)

John Wiles, RCAHMW, 26 February 2008

2. The definitive account was published in Davies and Burnham 2010, 'Roman Frontiers in Wales and the Marches', RCAHMW, 286-9, which includes details of the 2005 geophysical survey.

T. Driver, RCAHMW, 27th Jan 2010.

3. Royal Commission aerial reconnaissance on 19th July 2018, during the 2018 drought, recorded some of the clearest aerial photographs of the buried fort yet seen. See : TOBY G. DRIVER, BARRY C. BURNHAM and JEFFREY L. DAVIES, 2020. Roman Wales: Aerial Discoveries and New Observations from the Drought of 2018
Britannia.