below An aerial view of Llangorse Lake from the north-west, with the crannog close to the northern shore (centre foreground).

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The palace in the lake: a royal residence on Llangorse Crannog

The Llangorse Crannog is the only example yet identified in Wales of a type of artificial island settlement more commonly found in Scotland and Ireland. Scepticism about the likelihood of the site being a crannog led to its being largely ignored in archaeological literature until the early 1980s. Then Alan Lane, who had recently been appointed to teach Post-Roman Archaeology at Cardiff University, rowed out to look and found substantial oak planks protruding from the water. Chris Catling describes what happened next.

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Current Archaeology

October 6, 2017

For a site that was first discovered in 1867 and partially excavated in 1869, it took a long time for the full significance of the Llangorse Crannog to be recognised by archaeologists. This small wooded island, roughly rectilinear and measuring some 40m by 30m, lies close to the north shore of Llangorse Lake (Llyn Syfaddan in Welsh), the largest natural body of water in south Wales. The lake lies in a basin east of Brecon, with the sandstone scarps and ridges of the Brecon Beacons rising to the south and west, and the Black Mountains to the east. An aerial view of Llangorse Lake from the north-west, with the crannog close to the northern shore (centre foreground). photo: RCAHMW © Crown C

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