NAR SN65NW1

This is the site of an extensive Roman military settlement centred on a fort (NPRN 92319), occupied in the later first-earlier second century AD. It is known from air photo reconnaissance, limited excavation and partial geophysical survey. Few traces remain on the ground, but a slight hollow marks the position of the headquarters building courtyard.
The fort (NPRN 303530) occupied a low hillock in an area of broken, intermittently marshy ground on the edge of the Teifi floodplain. It was a near square enclosure with rounded corners, about 130m across. It faced south-east towards the river crossing. Such a fort would have held a garison of at least 500 soldiers and the settlement would have had a population of at least twice as many. The commander would have been a Roman knight, a wealthy aristocrat who lived in a luxurious house in the fort's central range. This fort was replaced by a smaller fortlet about 130m east-west by 75m that overlay its northern half.
The main extramural settlement area was set around a street connecting the fort's west gate to a north-south highway (NPRN 302935). The street was effectively blocked by the reduced fortlet ramparts. The ruins of a bathhouse were excavated south of the fort and remain exposed (NPRN 303529).
A possible Roman camp (NPRN 309265) lies about 500m to the north-west.

Sources: Willis Bund in Archaeologia Cambrensis 5th series 5 (1888), 279-319
St Joseph in the Journal of Roman Studies 51 (1961), 119-135
Jarrett in Archaeology in Wales 1 (1961), 6-7
Richmond and others in the Journal of Roman Studies 52 (1962), 160-190
Jarrett 'The Roman Frontier in Wales' 2nd edition (1969), 97-8
Davies in Archaeology in Wales 9 (1969), 17; 12 (1972), 23; 13 (1973), 38-9
in the 'Cardigan County History I (1994), 302-6
Hopewell 'Roman Fort Environs: Trawscoed & Llanio' GAT report No.623 (2006)

John Wiles 26.02.08