Banc y Betws or Betws Castle, is a motte and scheduled ancient monument in Wales. It is located in

Llangyndeyrn Llangyndeyrn () is a village, Community (Wales), community and electoral ward in the River Gwendraeth river valley, valley, Carmarthenshire, in Dyfed region of West Wales, United Kingdom. The village name is often spelt as Llangendeirne. The W ...

, in the Gwendraith Valley in

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

, Wales; map grid /tools.wmflabs.org/os/coor_g/?pagename=Banc_y_Betws¶ms=SN458154_region%3AGB_scale%3A25000 SN458154.All that is visible of the structure nowadays is a mound capped with trees and the remains of the ditch that surrounded it.

History

The

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Fran ...

introduced

motte-and-bailey castle A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

s from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

to countries such as Britain, where the technology was adopted by the Welsh people. The largest clustering of these in Britain are in the

Welsh Marches The Welsh Marches ( cy, Y Mers) is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin ...

: namely

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

Powys Powys (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh succession of states, successor state, petty kingdom and princi ...

and

Flintshire , settlement_type = County , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms of Flint ...

. The greatest numbers of these castle were built in Wales between the 11th century and the second half the 12th century, built out of soil and stone, usually surrounded by a ditch and topped with a wooden or stone structure known as a

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

. The history of this particular castle is not known.

The site

Betws Castle is a mound approximately 40 metres by 35 metres, and roughly 9 metres high. The top of the mound is concave, with the centre about lower than the rim. A dry ditch, approximately 5 metres wide and two metres deep, surrounds the site except on the north side, where it has been filled in. The eastern face of the mound was damaged by quarrying in the mid-twentieth century. The Historic Environment Record for the castles indicates that the site has not been archaeologically excavated and does not mention any recorded history. The castle is registered with Cadw, number CM124. Some of the ditch to the north has been incorporated into the adjoining field and the motte itself is clad in large trees.

References

{{Authority control Castles in Carmarthenshire