Castlebythe

Castlebythe ( _cy. Cas-fuwch) is a village and parish in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated on the southern slopes of the Preseli Hills, 10 km south-east of Fishguard. The northern part of the parish is in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Together with the parishes of Henry's Moat, Little Newcastle, Morvil and Puncheston, it constitutes the community of Puncheston.

The Welsh name (shortened from "Castell Fuwch") means "Cow castle", and is perhaps a mocking name for an abandoned fortification, inhabited only by cows [Charles, B. G., "The Placenames of Pembrokeshire", National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1992, ISBN 0-907158-58-7, p 32] . The English form is a corruption of the Welsh. There is a prominent early-Norman motte close to the village. There are a few English placenames in the southern part of the parish [Charles, "ibid", p liv] , but there is no evidence to suggest large-scale English colonisation in the medieval period, and the parish has always been essentially Welsh-speaking.

The parish had an area of 1047 Ha. Its census populations were: 174 (1801): 266 (1851): 155 (1901): 102 (1951): 80 (1981).

The percentage of Welsh speakers was 100 (1891): 98 (1931): 75 (1971).

References

External links

* [http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/PEM/Castlebythe/ Castlebythe on Genuki]