Llanio Roman Fort and Bathhouse

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The monument comprises buried features and earthworks representing a Roman fort. The primary Roman fort network was designed and constructed by the Roman army for the purpose of military conquest and rule. Llanio, tentatively identified as the Roman Bremia, is the site of an extensive Roman military settlement (see also the western vicus scheduled as CD120) centred on a fort that had been suspected since the late seventeenth century when Edward Lhuyd recorded coins, bricks and pottery at a location known as ‘Cae’r Castell’ to the east of Llanio-isaf Farm. Excavations were undertaken in the 19th and 20th centuries, and features were also noted on aerial photographs in the dry summers of 1975 and 1976. Few traces remain on the ground, but a slight hollow marks the position of the headquarters building courtyard. The fort occupied a gravel terrace above the northern edge of the Teifi floodplain. It was a near-square enclosure with rounded corners, about 130m across, and faced south-east towards the river crossing. The fort was established around AD 73-77 and appears to have been refurbished, possibly for a smaller garrison, around AD 100-120, and to have been abandoned around AD 120-130 or possibly earlier. Five inscribed stones have been discovered, two of which record legionary activity and two of which attest the presence of the Cohors II Asturum, a cavalry unit 500 strong. A bath-house, which has been excavated, lies c.100m to the south of the fort, near a copious spring. The complex is of the typical 1st-century ‘row’ type, with a hot room at the northern end.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of Roman military organisation. The monument forms an important element within the wider context of the Roman occupation of Wales and the structures may contain well preserved archaeological evidence concerning chronology, layout and building techniques.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.