Archæologia Cambrensis.

NEW SERIES, No. IV.-OCTOBER, 1850.

CASTELL COCH, GLAMORGAN.

TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTES.1

1

THE river Taff, from its origin under the Brecon Beacons, after a course of about twenty-six miles through the northern and mountain district of Glamorgan, escapes by a deep and narrow ravine across the last elevation, and rolls its course, unfettered, to the Bristol Channel.

The ridge which it thus finally cleaves, and which divides the hill-country from the plain, is part of the great southern ́escarpment of the coal basin of Glamorgan, supported there by the mountain limestone rising from below, and in its turn reposing upon the old red sandstone, the denuded surface of which forms, under the later horizontal rocks and drift gravel, the basis of the plain. The escarpment, extending for many miles along the contiguous counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan, is traversed, in this immediate neighbourhood, by the three passes of the Ebbwy, the Rhymny, and the Taff. The heights bounding the latter river, though in actual elevation below some other parts of the chain, produce a very striking effect, from the abruptness of their rise from the plain.

1 The following article professes only to be a faithful account of the castle as it now stands, or as it may, by a very strict induction, be inferred to have stood.

ARCH. CAMB., NEW SERIES, VOL. I.

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These heights, on each side of the pass, must always have been regarded by the inhabitants of the country as places of great security. On the right bank of the river, the huge lumpish sandstone mass of the Garth rises to 981 feet above the sea, and is crowned by two remarkable tumuli, well known as landmarks in the vale, and visible even from the distant shores of Somerset.

The elevation on the left bank, though lower, is more precipitous. It presents, in the lichen-stained crags about its summits, and the rich verdure which clothes its sides and base, all those features so well known to geologists as characterising the scenery of the mountain limestone.

Nature has rendered the west and south sides of this height-those exposed to any foe from beyond seanearly inaccessible. Across the north-eastern side, lines of circumvallation have been hewn out of the rock, the dimensions of which show the value attached to the place, as a fortress, by the Cymry.

There was reason in the choice. From hence the long ships of the Danish rovers could be seen while yet distant from the shore, and timely notice be given, and protection afforded to, the people of the plain, should the ravagers extend their sweep far inwards from the coast. A beacon fire upon the headland of Penarth-celebrated in Anglo-Norman verse for its ancient oak, and now marked by its white church-answered here, or on the opposite Garth, would be repeated from the summits of the distant mountains of Brecon and Caermarthen, and would at once spread the tidings of invasion over the whole of the southern coast.

The Normans, within a century and a-half after the conquest of Glamorgan, had completed a chain of castles along the plain country, from Chepstow to Pembroke, and were only exposed to the invasions of the Welsh from the mountain tracts upon the north. To check these, they threw up a number of fortresses, either upon, or within the verge of, the hill-country, of which Caerphilly on the Rhymny, and Castell Coch on the Taff, may be cited as adjacent examples.

The site of the Cymric camp was far too difficult of access to allow of the ready transport into it of provisions, or munitions of war, or of a constant and rapid communication with the chief castle at Cardiff. Lower down the scarp, though still high above the plain, the Norman engineer selected a natural platform on the limestone rock, separated from the main scarp by a natural depression, and sufficiently removed from the summit to be out of the reach of any military engines with which the Welsh were likely to be acquainted, or which, from their want of organisation, they were likely to be able to bring, with their forces, against the castle. There is an easy approach to this platform from the east, which probably communicated with the old road, called Roman, and no doubt Cymric, which leads direct from Cardiff to Rheubina, and close upon which is the circular mound, which appears to have been the site of a tower, at Whitchurch, and the Celtic tumulus of Twmpath. Upon this platform was erected the fortress which is here to be described.

Castell Coch, so called from the red tint of its materials, is, in general plan, a triangle, each angle being capped by a drum-tower. Its general divisions are the south, east, and northern towers, the gate-tower, the curtains and hall, and the outworks.

The platform occupied by the whole is about two hundred yards long, by seventy yards broad, and the principal works of the castle occupy its west end. The south face is, in part, precipitous, and from twenty to thirty feet high. The north face, towards the upper hillside, is deepened into a formidable moat, and the east end was defended by a fosse, cut deeply across the rock, and beyond this by two towers, connected by a curtain-wall.

The north tower rises, from a square base, to a cylindrical superstructure, the north and south angles terminating in buttresses, each the half of a pyramid cut vertically and diagonally across, after a fashion very common in Welsh castles, and well seen in Marten's Tower at Chepstow. The cylinder is forty feet in diameter.

It contains three stories, of which the middle one is on a level with the inner court, or terre pleine, of the place.

The lower story may have been a dungeon. It is vaulted, and has two great cross-springer ribs, and two windows opening high above the floor. A narrow passage, vaulted, with steps, leads into it from the court. Its internal diameter is eighteen feet, its walls upwards of ten feet thick. The windows were mere loopholes..

The middle story is also circular and vaulted, with similar ribs. Here, however, the windows open nearly on the level of the floor, though also loops. There is a fire-place, with a flue carried up in the wall. The flue is backed with stone. The entrance to this chamber is also from the court, and, on the east side of the vaulted passage, a gallery passes off in the thickness of the wall, and leads to what was a small sewer chamber, occupying a square projection on the east side of the tower, at its junction with the curtain. The general dimensions of this story, and the thickness of the walls, correspond with those of the room below.

The upper story contains one chamber, the south and east sides of which are flat, the rest circular. Here are no less than three fire-places, each of large dimensions, with funnels in the thickness of the wall. It contains also two small recesses, one a sort of sink, and has two windows. There are also two doors, one, on the south side, opening upon the roof and ramparts of the hall and west front, the other, eastwards, leading to the ramparts of the great or northern curtain. Access to this chamber, from below, seems to have been obtained by an exterior stair between the tower and the hall. This story, within, is about twenty-six feet mean diameter, and the walls vary from two feet three inches, to four feet thick. It was roofed flat, with timber, and above were ramparts and a parapet, probably reached by means of a trap-door in the roof.

This tower is the most perfect of the whole, and in tolerable preservation, although the lower chamber is half-full of rubbish; the small apartment connected with

the middle story is broken down, and the roof and ramparts are wanting on the summit. This tower, however, is evidently the type of, and has served in the present instance as a clue to, the original plan of the others.

The south tower corresponded nearly to the last, and, like it, appears to have contained three chambers, and at its junction with the west curtain, a square projection, containing in the middle story a small sewer chamber, and in the upper, probably a communication with the battlements of the hall. The lower chamber is entered by a vaulted passage, down steps, from the court-yard. The middle or main chamber probably was entered on the level, by a passage from the court-yard, and a triforial gallery seems to have led from this passage to the window or opening in the south end of the hall. The upper chamber was accessible from the hall battlements, as it probably also was from those of the gateway curtain. It is uncertain whether this tower rose from a square base-probably it did. Its upper part was cylindrical, forty feet diameter. The walls are eight feet thick, and the chambers do not appear to have been vaulted. This tower is in a ruined state. The two outer thirds of its circumference have been blown away by a mine, but the part connected with the hall, including a door below, two windows in the lower and middle story, and the small chamber in the wall, remain tolerably perfect, and remove all doubts as to the original elevation and particulars of the whole.

The east tower corresponds in altitude and general arrangements to the other two, like them containing three stories. It is cylindrical from the base, and forty feet diameter; but, towards the court-yard, it presents a flat face, with two shoulders, projecting at its junction. with its curtains. Like the other towers, it has a square projection for a small chamber, here found at its junction outside with the great or northern curtain. The lower story, like those of the other towers, is below the level of the court, but instead of being entered directly by a distinct staircase, a gallery branches off from the passage to