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Llanio Roman Bathhouse

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NPRN303529
Map ReferenceSN65NW
Grid ReferenceSN6446256278
Unitary (Local) AuthorityCeredigion
Old CountyCardiganshire
CommunityLlanddewi Brefi
Type Of SiteBATH HOUSE
PeriodRoman
Description
NAR SN65NW1

This is the site of an extensive Roman military settlement centred on a fort (NPRN 92319), occupied in the later first-earlier second century AD. It is known from air photo reconnaissance, limited excavation and partial geophysical survey. Few traces remain on the ground, but a slight hollow marks the position of the headquarters building courtyard.
The fort (NPRN 303530) occupied a low hillock in an area of broken, intermittently marshy ground on the edge of the Teifi floodplain. It was a near square enclosure with rounded corners, about 130m across. It faced south-east towards the river crossing. Such a fort would have held a garison of at least 500 soldiers and the settlement would have had a population of at least twice as many. The commander would have been a Roman knight, a wealthy aristocrat who lived in a luxurious house in the fort's central range. This fort was replaced by a smaller fortlet about 130m east-west by 75m that overlay its northern half.
The main extramural settlement area (NPRN 275655) was set around a street connecting the fort's west gate to a north-south highway (NPRN 302935). The street was effectively blocked by the reduced fortlet ramparts. The ruins of a bathhouse were excavated south of the fort and remain exposed.
A possible Roman camp (NPRN 309265) lies about 500m to the north-west.

Sources: Willis Bund in Archaeologia Cambrensis 5th series 5 (1888), 279-319
St Joseph in the Journal of Roman Studies 51 (1961), 119-135
Jarrett in Archaeology in Wales 1 (1961), 6-7
Richmond and others in the Journal of Roman Studies 52 (1962), 160-190
Jarrett 'The Roman Frontier in Wales' 2nd edition (1969), 97-8
Davies in Archaeology in Wales 9 (1969), 17; 12 (1972), 23; 13 (1973), 38-9
in the 'Cardigan County History I (1994), 302-6
Hopewell 'Roman Fort Environs: Trawscoed & Llanio' GAT report No.623 (2006)

John Wiles 26.02.08