Caerwent Motte

Caerwent Motte is an artificial mound erected across and on top of the south-eastern corner of the well-preserved Roman town walls of Venta Silurum. It was originally provided with a ditch, but no other outworks, and most likely served as a watch tower or look-out point. The walls were almost certainly defensible at the time, but the enclosed area is too large for a castle-type structure, so perhaps part of the settlement area was fenced off with a palisade – or else Venta was used as a base for invasion.