Llandough was a Roman villa on the low ridge above the Ely estuary in the Vale of Glamorgan, a few kilometres southwest of the civitas capital at Cardiff (and within easy reach of the legionary fortress at Caerleon). Occupation appears to span the later 1st or 2nd century through to the 4th century AD, with the site forming part of the dense cluster of villas in the fertile coastal lowlands of southeast Wales.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The villa belongs to the agriculturally prosperous Glamorgan villa belt (with Ely, Llantwit Major and Whitton nearby), reflecting the Romanisation of native Silurian estate-holders and the supply of cereals and stock to the urban and military markets of the region. Its proximity to the estuary would have facilitated coastal trade.
Excavations in the late 1970s revealed stone-built ranges with evidence of a winged-corridor plan, painted wall plaster and tessellated/mosaic flooring, indicating a residence of some pretension by the 3rd–4th century. The Roman levels were heavily truncated by the major early medieval cemetery and monastic site that overlay them, and published detail of the villa phase remains comparatively limited.
Llandough was a Roman villa on the low ridge above the Ely estuary in the Vale of Glamorgan, a few kilometres southwest of the civitas capital at Cardiff (and within easy reach of the legionary fortress at Caerleon). It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a villa site from the Roman period in Britain.
Llandough is classified as a Roman villa — a civilian 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 Tamion? (4 km), Ely Roman Villa (4.2 km), Whitton Lodge Roman Villa (8.9 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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