Dolaucothi, in the Cothi valley of Carmarthenshire, is the only confirmed Roman gold mine in Britain, exploited from shortly after the conquest of the region (c. AD 75) until at least the late 2nd century, with possible smaller-scale continuation later. The Romans employed an industrial-scale operation combining opencast workings, deep adit and shaft mining, and hydraulic methods ("hushing" and ground-sluicing) fed by aqueducts drawing water from the Cothi and Annell rivers over distances of up to 11 km.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
As an imperial gold source, Dolaucothi was almost certainly under direct state or military control, comparable to the great gold districts of north-west Iberia (e.g. Las Médulas), and was supported by a nearby auxiliary fort at Pumsaint to provide garrison oversight and security. It is the most westerly known Roman gold operation in the Empire and the principal evidence for organised Roman metal extraction in western Britain.
Survey and excavation, notably by G.D.B. Jones and P.R. Lewis in the 1960s–70s and subsequent National Trust/RCAHMW work, have traced the aqueduct leats, water-storage tanks, opencast pits (Ogofau), and underground galleries, while finds include a wooden drainage waterwheel fragment (now in the National Museum Wales), iron tools, and the well-known Dol
Dolaucothi, in the Cothi valley of Carmarthenshire, is the only confirmed Roman gold mine in Britain, exploited from shortly after the conquest of the region (c. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a mine site from the Roman period in Britain.
Gold Mines at Dolaucothi, Wales is classified as a Roman mine — a industrial site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including Unnamed aqueduct(s) at Dolaucothi, Wales (0 km), Pumsaint Roman Fort (ancient Louentinon?) (0.8 km), Alabum (11.7 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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