MM074

Ringwork NE of New House  

25/09/1936  

Designated  

Monmouthshire  

Llangwm  

342429  

201106  

Domestic  

Ringwork  

Medieval  

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument. The monument comprises the remains of a well preserved castle-ringwork, probably dating to the medieval period. It is located on a small hilltop and consists of a circular flat-topped platform, 45m in diameter at the base and 24m across the summit, surrounded by steep-sided bank, 1m high above the level interior up to 3.5m above the base of its external ditch. On the NE is a 4m wide break in the bank which could have been an entrance. The ditch is 2-3m wide and 1m deep, and extends around the N, S and E sides of the earthwork. It lies in open farmland, remote from any other relics of medieval settlement. The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of medieval defensive and domestic architecture and the Norman conquest and colonisation of medieval Gwent. It is well preserved and retains considerable archaeological potential with a strong probability of the presence of evidence relating to chronology, layout, building techniques and contemporary material culture. It has not been excavated and is of uncertain date but shares group value with a series of small undocumented mottes and ringworks in the region and is likely to represent the remains of the modest defended residence and estate centre of a Norman or Welsh military tenant. The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.