NAR SN30NE5

This is a sixteenth-seventeenth century type dovecote set on a steep hillside overlooking Coleman Farm and Kidwelly. It is a circular structure of stone rubble with a shallow corbelled dome and a circular centre hole. Within there are 236 dove holes arrayed in eleven tiers. Above the door, on the inside, a much decayed date inscription of 1571 has been noted. Elsewhere on the inside are eighteenth century dates and initials.
Dovecotes such as this were a mark of gentry status and this example was probably associated with a nearby mansion.
The building is shown as 'old lime kiln' on the OS County series 1st edition (Carmarthen. LIII.6 1880).

Sources: Transaction of the Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society & Field Club 1 (1903-5),79)
RCAHMW Carmarthenshire Inventory (1917), 54-5
CADW Listed Buildings Database (11879)

John Wiles 28.01.08