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Coygan Cave

Archaeological sites in WalesCaves of WalesLandforms of Carmarthenshire

Coygan Cave was an ossiferous cave near Laugharne in Carmarthenshire, Wales. The cave was about a mile from the sea and located in a limestone hillside, but has been destroyed by quarrying.Although prehistoric handaxes were found in the cave, there were no human bones. Three triangular handaxes (bout coupé) suggested that the cave had been used by Neanderthals some time between 64,000 and 38,000 years BCE. These axes were made of local materials. The cave was subsequently a den for hyenas, and was described by zoologist George Rolleston, prior to his death in 1881, as "the most perfect instance of a hyena den" he had seen. Rev G N Smith, a correspondent of Charles Darwin, collected many of the bone samples from the cave. Some of the finds are now held by the National Museum of Wales and others by Carmarthenshire County Museum.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Coygan Cave (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.754444444444 ° E -4.4866666666667 °
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Address

A4066
SA33 4RL , Laugharne Township
Wales, United Kingdom
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Castle House, Laugharne
Castle House, Laugharne

Castle House in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, Wales, is a Grade II*–listed Georgian mansion. Described by Dylan Thomas as “the best of houses in the best of places”, it is one of many buildings of note in the medieval township. The house was built around 1730, although remodelled inside and out in the Regency period. It features a three-storey, five-bay facade, with the central three bays projecting slightly. The central doorway is surmounted by a pediment; above it are tripartite windows, with the uppermost one in the Venetian style. A broad cornice on the facade conceals the slate roof. Several wings, lower than the main body of the house, project to the rear, one of which dates to the original 18th-century construction. The interiors are mainly of the Regency period and later but include the only example in Carmarthenshire of a Chinese Chippendale staircase.There were formerly a number of outbuildings to the rear of the house, as can be seen in the first-edition Ordnance Survey County Series map (Carmarthen, XLV.14, 1889), and the grounds of Laugharne Castle were formerly landscaped to serve as the house's garden. Two of the surviving outbuildings have been converted to a bed and breakfast and a restaurant. Although the castle is now in the guardianship of Cadw, its title is still with the house. Until recently Castle House was in the ownership of the Starke family, who had held it since the early 19th century, although it is now the private residence of David Thomas and Abi Thomas, daughter of the local artist David Petersen. The house has long had artistic links, as Richard Hughes wrote In Hazard (1938) while living there, and Dylan Thomas wrote Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (1940) while staying with Hughes.