DOLAUCOTHI N.
Carmarthenshire, Wales.
Site of Roman gold mines near the village of Pumsaint,
on the road linking the forts at Llandovery and Llanio.
The mining area, the most technologically advanced in
Roman Britain, comprised both sides of the mountain
spur forming the S side of the Cothi valley. The mines
demarcate the principal outcropping of auriferous quartz
veins. The axis of their strike is roughly NE-SW and
there are four lodes of varying quality. The site was first
exploited in the pre-Roman period but developed enormously in scale with the Roman conquest of S Wales ca.
A.D. 74. Despite two periods of modern exploitation the
mines retain substantially their Roman shape, and visible
remains include aqueduct systems, reservoirs, mining
galleries, and opencasts.
The complex comprises: 1) Several aqueducts running
down both sides of the mountain ridge. The 11.2 km Cothi
aqueduct is the longest of these, bringing ca. 9-13 million liters per day to the minehead. The other main aqueduct derived from the Annell river. 2) Opencast workings and adits: the largest group lies immediately S of
Ogofau Lodge. The last modern exploitation of this area
located Roman galleries drained by an elaborate pumping
system over 60 m below the opencast floor. These workings are now all flooded and inaccessible. 3) Traces of a
settlement associated with the mines and covering much
of the valley floor in the area of Pumsaint village. A
fort may be involved but the area awaits excavation. In
the last century remains of a bath house were located
S of the village, close to the cemetery which served the
mining settlement.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Royal Commission for Ancient Monuments,
Carmarthenshire (1917) 24; G.D.B. Jones & P. R.
Lewis, “Dolaucothi Gold Mines I,”
AntJ 69 (1969) 244ff; id.,
The Roman Gold Mines at Dolaucothi
(1971)
MPI.
G.D.B. JONES
