Royal Commission aerial reconnaissance during the 2018 drought, between 13th and 17th July, identified a series of cropmarks showing the intermittent buried agger of the Roman road, flanking quarry pits or road side ditches suggesting a direct route between Carmarthen and Kidwelly, running south through Cwmffrwd and Idole (fossilised by a minor road), south past LiDAR evidence (500m of the low earthwork of the agger showing running north-south) and parchmarks of a single quarry pit at Fforest Uchaf (NPRN 415842, SN 421 144), as a faint parchmark with a flanking roadside ditch at Bwlch y Gwynt (NPRN 423818, SN 419 136), south to Llandyfaelog (no visible evidence), and then with striking parchmarks of an agger and quarry pits south of Nantllan (NPRN 323819, SN 416 111) and low earthworks of a holloway and parchmarks of quarry pits below and to the east of the modern A484 road approaching Kidwelly between Pontmorlais cottage and Pant-glas (this record NPRN 423820, SN 418 096). Evidence suggests a Roman port or installation on the Gwendraeth in the vicinity of Kidwelly.

The 500m road section at Pant-glas diverges eastwards of the modern road and is associated with later earthworks of a deserted farmstead (at SN 418 096) and fields (NPRN 408511); it appears likely that this medieval holloway re-uses the existing line of the Roman road, although it is not as straight as sections observed to the north.

References:

Driver, T., Burnham, B C, and Davies, J. L. 2020. Roman Wales: Aerial Discoveries and New Observations from the Drought of 2018. Britannia. 1-29.

Driver, T. 2021. Aerial Archaeology in Wales during the 2018 drought: Major Discoveries. Archaeology in Wales 59, 96-114.

T. Driver 2019; revised 2023