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Raby's Furnace is a post-medieval and modern iron forge located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference CM219. The site exploited the rich mineral resources of the South Wales coalfield, where the underlying geology—part of the Upper Coal Measures Formation—provided abundant ironstone, coal and ferricrete alongside accessible seams of coal. This geological abundance made the region ideal for iron production during the period of industrial expansion following the seventeenth century.
The furnace represents the industrial heritage of South Wales, where forge sites proliferated to process locally won ironstone using coal as fuel. The Westphalian-age strata beneath the site, laid down in ancient deltaic environments, contained the ferruginous materials essential to smelting operations. The combination of coal, ironstone and ferricrete all present within the same geological formation made sites like Raby's Furnace economically viable.
Today the monument stands as evidence of Wales's role in Britain's iron-working industries during the post-medieval period and later. The landscape around Raby's Furnace retains the imprint of this industrial past, with the underlying geology continuing to define the character of the South Wales valleys where such enterprises once flourished.
Raby's Furnace is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference CM219. View the official record →
Raby's Furnace is a post-medieval and modern iron forge located in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference CM219.
Raby's Furnace dates from the post medieval/modern period, and is classified as a iron forge. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Raby's Furnace 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 CM219.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Pen-y-Gaer (6.9 km), Llanelen Chapel Site (8.2 km), Gron-Gaer (8.2 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Raby's Furnace'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.
Raby's Furnace stands on South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.