BOOK OF DOVECOTES 



half-artificial, for advantage has been taken of 

 the site by man. 



The cliff crack has, at some date now un- 

 known, been closed in by a solid wall, sixty feet 

 in height and ten feet thick at the base. This 

 wall is pierced by several windows, while in- 

 side there is a rough stone stair. Further, the 

 inner face is lined by many hundred L-shaped 

 nest-holes. 



The wild rockpigeon still frequents thecoast; 

 the purpose of the unknown builder of the wall 

 is fairly clear — to attract the birds to nest in 

 the holes he had provided, when, covering the 

 windows with a net, he would be able to secure 

 what he required from time to time. This Port 

 Eynon dovecote is most probably unique. 



On Caldey Island, at St. Illtyd's Priory, a 

 religious house believed to have been founded 

 in the sixth century, and now again occupied 

 by monks of the order of St. Benedict, there is 

 a rather interesting dovecote over an archway 

 in the west wall of the garth. The buildings 

 still surviving range in age from the eleventh 

 to the sixteenth century, and the pigeon-loft 

 is probably of the fifteenth. It only contains 

 200 



