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Cardigan Town Walls is a medieval town wall situated in Cardigan, Wales, and is protected as a scheduled ancient monument by Cadw under reference CD141. The walls were constructed to defend the walled town and its market during the medieval period, forming part of the defensive infrastructure that characterised important trading settlements of the age.
The monument stands upon bedrock of Ashgill age rocks, which are undifferentiated mudstone, siltstone and sandstone formations. These local geological resources would have been available for construction, though the walls themselves were built principally from dressed stone and rubble characteristic of medieval Welsh town fortifications. The stone selected reflects both the practical building materials at hand and the skilled masonry required for substantial defensive structures.
Today the surviving sections of Cardigan's town walls remain as evidence of the town's medieval commercial and military significance. The walls would have defined the town's boundary, controlled access through gated entries, and provided the residents with protection during periods of conflict. The monument contributes substantially to understanding the development and layout of medieval urban settlement in Wales and the role of fortified towns in the region's administrative and economic systems.
Cardigan Town Walls is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference CD141. View the official record →
Cardigan Town Walls is a medieval town wall situated in Cardigan, Wales, and is protected as a scheduled ancient monument by Cadw under reference CD141.
Cardigan Town Walls dates from the medieval period, and is classified as a town wall. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Cardigan Town Walls 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 CD141.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Inscribed Pillar Stone in Churchyard (3.9 km), Castell Felin-Ganol (4 km), Castell Pen-yr-Allt (4.4 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Cardigan Town Walls'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.
Cardigan Town Walls stands on Ashgill Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Ashgill. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.