BLACK SCAR

GRID REFERENCE: SN 331098

AREA IN HECTARES: 61.13

Historic Background

This is a narrow area of steep coastal slopes and cliffs, which formed part of the Medieval Lordship of Llansteffan, held under manorial tenure.  It has had limited economic value, but there are a number of limestone exposures which were, towards the east of the area, extensively quarried during the 18th- and 19th-century. The stone for the 'Freething' sea-wall at Laugharne was derived from these quarries (James n.d.).

Base map reproduced from the OS map with the permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of The Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, © Crown Copyright 2001.
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Description and essential historic landscape components

This is essentially a narrow band of coastal sea-cliff rising to over 90 m. It is in part composed of Carboniferous Limestone. In these limestone areas there is considerable evidence of quarrying and limestone processing, including the remains of substantial 18th- and 19th-century lime kilns, and the inclines and slides by which the stone was carried to the foreshore for transportation across the Taf estuary for the 'Freething' sea-wall at Laugharne. The only other historic landscape component consists of a small stand of ?ancient deciduous woodland on the less precipitous slopes at the western end of the area.

Apart from a Roman findspot, recorded archaeology is confined to quarrying features.

There are no buildings.

The steep, and on occasions vertical, slopes of this area separate the estuaries of the Taf and Tywi from the rolling farmland to the north. It is therefore a very distinct historic landscape area.