Raglan Castle

Clients: CADW

Author: Sarah Jones

Site supervisor: Sarah Jones

MoLAS worked in partnership with Plowman Craven Associates, on an integrated building survey, archaeological survey and GIS project for the client, CADW, at Raglan Castle in Monmouthshire. The castle, one of the finest in South Wales, contains not only the defensive features normally associated with such structures, but also high quality late medieval ranges of domestic apartments and an very important parkland landscape including rare survivals of late medieval gardens, with water-parterres and summerhouses. PCA were responsible for new measured building and landscape survey elements, which were then combined with earlier survey data, which MoLAS had georeferenced and digitised. MoLAS regenerated the landscape contouring, which was also adjusted to a GPS-derived datum. MoLAS' archaeological walkover survey included documentary research, and a photographic survey, which was directly incorporated into the ArcGIS project by hyperlinking. Other datasets incorporated into the GIS were OS historic and contemporary mapping, OS contour mapping, historic map imagery, and geophysical survey, as well as all elements of the integrated building, topographic and contour survey. Although the castle suffered greatly as a result of the Civil War seige, a 1652 historic map displayed the water parterres, formal gardens, artificial lake and other landscaping features which had survived. The map image was rubbersheeted and fitted to modern OS mapping, enabling correlation to be made between landscape elements identified by the contour survey, and the renaissance garden features depicted. Very interesting results were obtained from a 3D landscape modelling and viewshed study from the Elizabethan long gallery window, and the (conjectured) top of a summerhouse, demonstrating a remarkable correlation between the extent of landscape visible from these viewpoints, and the parkland boundary of the estate, which is still reflected in modern road and field boundaries. CADW intend to use the GIS project as a tool for managing the Castle in the future, providing integrated access to diverse and hitherto incompatible datasets.

This site report is extracted from MoLAS 2005: annual review