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St Clears Mound and Bailey Castle is a medieval motte and bailey castle situated in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference CM095. The monument comprises the characteristic two-part earthwork of its type: a raised mound, or motte, crowned with a timber palisade, alongside an adjacent bailey or defensive enclosure. These castles were typically erected swiftly during the Norman period and early medieval campaigns, requiring no dressed stone and relying instead on substantial earthworks and timber fortifications to establish military control over strategic territories.
The castle's site rests upon Caradoc Rocks of Caradocian age, a bedrock composed of mudstone, siltstone and sandstone. This geology provided a relatively stable foundation for the mound's construction, though the softer sedimentary character of the underlying strata contrasts sharply with the harder igneous bases of some contemporary Welsh fortifications. The composition of local stone and soil would have shaped the practical methods employed in raising the earthwork.
As a motte and bailey, St Clears Mound and Bailey Castle exemplifies the military architecture favoured across Wales and the English borderlands during the medieval period. Such fortifications served as bases for garrison forces and administrative centres, typically controlling communication routes, river crossings or territorial approaches. The monument's earthworks, though altered by time and land use, preserve evidence of this significant phase of Welsh medieval history.
St Clears Mound and Bailey Castle is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference CM095. View the official record →
St Clears Mound and Bailey Castle is a medieval motte and bailey castle situated in Wales and protected by Cadw under reference CM095.
St Clears Mound and Bailey Castle dates from the medieval period, and is classified as a motte and bailey. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
St Clears Mound and Bailey Castle 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 CM095.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Delacorse Uchaf Standing Stone (4.5 km), Little Mountain Round Barrow (4.8 km), Hillslope Enclosure at Laugharne Park Holiday Village (4.9 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of St Clears Mound and Bailey Castle'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.
St Clears Mound and Bailey Castle stands on Caradoc Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Caradocian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.