UPON the northern limits of the county of Glamorgan, and above the eastern and lesser of the two sources of the Taff, stand the ruins of the castle of Morlais, so called from a small brook which rises a little to its north-east, and which, after receiving the Dowlais, flows into the Taff, within the adjacent town of Merthyr.

The castle is placed upon the edge of a considerable platform of mountain limestone rock, quarried extensively during the present century for the neighbouring ironworks, and about 470 feet above the Taff Vechan, which, descending through a steep and narrow gorge of considerable beauty, the boundary of the ancient districts of Brecheinioc and Morganwg, as of the modern counties of Brecknock and Glamorgan, escapes below the castle, through the defile and over the fall of Pont Sarn, to join the Taff a little above Merthyr.

The position, strong upon the north and west, is open upon the east and south; thus, in its want of complete natural defences, resembling in position the Norman castles rather than the Celtic or Saxon camps. It commands an extensive view over much of the upper Taff, and of the Merthyr basin, and was, on the whole, well placed to guard this frontier of Glamorgan against the inland tribes, to give notice of their approach to the garrisons of the plain, and to cut off any spoilers who, having invaded the vale, might be returning by this route to their native fastnesses.

The ancient trackway of Heol Adda, still a parish road, the shortest, and within memory the ordinary, way from Gelligaer and Merthyr to Brecon, passes about half a mile north-east of the castle, and was completely commanded by it.

The ground-plan of Morlais is very simple. A court, of an irregular oval shape, 140 yards north and south, by 60 yards east and west, is enclosed within an embattled wall capped by five or six circular towers, and encompassed on the north, east, and south sides by a moat, discontinued on the west side, which was always steep, though recently quarried into a cliff. The only remaining entrance to the court is on the east side, through a narrow archway in the curtain, which could only have admitted infantry, and which is approached by a steep path and a causeway across the moat. A broader causeway across the moat at its south end seems to have led to a larger gateway, probably commanded by a tower, connected by a curtain with the main wall; but this gateway, if it ever existed, is completely buried beneath the ruins.

J.T. Clark. delt.

J H Le Keux Sc.

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