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Cae-Banal Castle Mound is a medieval motte built upon Ludlow Rocks, the ancient mudstone, siltstone and sandstone bedrock that underlies the site. The castle mound rises from the Ludlow geological formation, a Silurian sequence deposited over four hundred million years ago. This stable foundation of mixed lithologies provided the medieval castle-builders with solid ground upon which to construct their earthwork fortification.
The motte represents a common form of Norman or early medieval military architecture, consisting of an artificially raised mound that would have supported defensive structures and a surrounding palisade. Such mottes typically commanded local landscapes and served administrative as well as defensive functions within their territories. At Cae-Banal, the underlying bedrock geology would have presented particular challenges and advantages to medieval engineers working with the materials and knowledge available to them.
The site is now protected and scheduled under Cadw's care as a monument of national significance, designated under reference RD108. The motte's preservation enables visitors and researchers to appreciate a surviving example of medieval fortification engineering in Wales, where the interaction between constructed earthwork and natural geology created the distinctive landscape features that characterise many rural settlements and power centres from the medieval period.
Cae-Banal Castle Mound is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference RD108. View the official record →
Cae-Banal Castle Mound is a medieval motte built upon Ludlow Rocks, the ancient mudstone, siltstone and sandstone bedrock that underlies the site. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference RD108.
Cae-Banal Castle Mound dates from the medieval period, and is classified as a motte. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Cae-Banal Castle Mound is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Cadw — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Wales. The official designation reference is RD108.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Gellidywyll Platform Settlement (6.7 km), Six Stones Stone Circle (7.3 km), Penarth Mount Castle Mound (8 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Cae-Banal Castle Mound's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Cae-Banal Castle Mound stands on Ludlow Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Ludlow. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.