English: Identifier: annalsantiquitie01nich

Title: Annals and antiquities of the counties and county families of Wales; containing a record of all ranks of the gentry ... with many ancient pedigrees and memorials of old and extinct families Year: 1872 (1870s) Authors: Nicholas, Thomas, 1820-1879 Subjects: Publisher: London, Longmans, Green, Reader Contributing Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center Digitizing Sponsor: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center

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Text Appearing Before Image: ecameindistinct, and unenlivened by a single habitation or a human face. We mounted a pre- s 258 CARMARTHENSHIRE. cipitous hill, over a track which formed the bed of a torrent, and discovered the objectof our search upon a bold rock a considerable distance on our right. On crossing theruin through its stormy halls, we recoiled on finding ourselves upon the brink of aprecipice, which, except on the side by which we ascended, encompasses the castle in aperpendicular rocky cliff upwards of 400 feet in height. Then climbing among the mossyfragments of the building, we discovered an aperture in the ground, connected with a longsubterranean gallery, dug through the solid rock, and lighted by windows cut in the cliff,though not visible from any situation without. This recess terminated in a large gloomycavern, which seemed to have led to some adjacent spot, forming a secret communicationfrom the castle. This gallery led to the well of the fortress, the descent being made not by steps, but by

Text Appearing After Image: Carreg Cen.nen Castle. a sloping mine cut through the living limestone. This passage is of varying dimensions,being in one place twelve feet in width, inanother less than three, and at a medium heightof ten feet. The whole descent through the rock is 150 feet in length. Notwithstandingall the labour here implied, the supply of water is so small as scarcely to be sufficient for asingle family—the result perhaps of a more recent change of drainage. The architectural features of this castle make it hazardous to assign it to any age ; butit is almost certain that it could not have been built since the time or during the time ofEdward I. It is far more likely to have been a bold imitation of some of the earliestNorman castles by the Welsh chieftains of these parts, the roughness of the masonry, withthe absence of all ornamentation and of Gothic forms, pronouncing it British rather thanNorman, and earlier rather than later than Henry I. But it is surprising how little is said ANTIQUITIES

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