CD100

Domen Las  

18/09/1949  

Designated  

Ceredigion  

Ysgubor-y-Coed  

268724  

296881  

Defence  

Motte  

Medieval  

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument. The monument comprises the remains of a motte and ditch, dating to the medieval period (c. 1066 -1540 AD). A motte is a large conical or pyramidal mound of soil and/or stone, usually surrounded by either a wet or dry ditch, and surmounted by a tower constructed of timber or stone. Domen Las stands on the end of an outcrop of rock jutting out through the marsh to the bank of the Dovey. The mound is c.7m high and the diameter across the top is c.10m. It is surrounded on the north, west and south by a rock cut ditch c.5m wide and c.1.3m deep, and on the east by the marsh. To the north-east lies a roughly rectangular area bounded by a scarped slope and separated from the motte by a ditch c.1.8m deep. The enclosed area is not very level but it appears to be a bailey, an additional defended area, measuring c.26m by c.18m. The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of medieval defensive practices. The monument is well-preserved and an important relic of the medieval landscape. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of both structural evidence and intact associated deposits. The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.