Abermarlais Castle

In the community of Llansadwrn.
In the historic county of Carmarthenshire (Modern authority of Carmarthenshire, preserved county of Dyfed).

A high-status dwelling may have been established at Abermarlais as early as C14 (Rees 1932), when it was the residence of Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd who commanded the Welsh at Crécy (Jones 1987, 4). During the early C16 it was occupied by the great Tudor magnate Sir Rhys ap Thomas (ibid.) and upon his death it was inherited by his grandson, another Sir Rhys ap Gruffydd. He was executed by Henry VIII for treason and the estate, and the neighbouring 'lordship of Llansadwrn', fell to the crown (Sambrook and Page 1995, 21). Abermarlais was the subject of a laudatory poem by Lewis Glyn Cothi and was described by Leland in the 1530s as 'a well favorid stone place' (Smith 1906), which may have been semi-fortified but having been 'new mendid and augmentid' by Sir Rhys ap Thomas (Jones 1987, 4).

This site has been described as a;
Fortified Manor House.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Possible.
Nothing visible remains.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SN692295

Modern Map from Good for landscape form and features	Modern Map from Good for general location
Air Photo from	1st edition OS Map from

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Sites and Monuments Record number; 11169

• Web site links
  • http://www.acadat.com/HLC/HLCTowy/area/area209.htm
• Books
  • Davis, Paul, 2000, A Company of Forts. A Guide to the Medieval Castles of West Wales (Gomer Press) p124
    Jones, F, 1987 Historic Carmarthenshire Homes and their Families (Carmarthen)
    Timbs, J. and Gunn, A., 1872, Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales Vol3 (London) p489-509
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1964, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (Centaur Press) Vol1
    
• Other sources and unpublished works (Theses, in-house reports and other such)
  • Sambrook, P, and Page, N, 1995 ‘The Historic Settlements of Dinefwr: Parts 1and 2’ , Archaeoleg Cambria Archaeology