Historical accounts of Monmouthshire traditionally identify Hen Gwrt as the home of Dafydd Gam, the legendary opponent of Owain Glyndŵr and supporter of Henry V, but there is no evidence for this.

[1] This episcopal presence also accounts for the "exceptional scale"[2] and "unusual grand(eur)"[2] of the parish church, dedicated to St Teilo, which stands a little south of Hen Gwrt.

Elisabeth Whittle's Historic Gardens of Wales reproduces a map of 1610 by John Speed that shows the deer parks of Monmouthshire, including that centred at Hen Gwrt.

[4] In his Introduction to The Diary of Walter Powell of Llantilio Crossenny in the County of Monmouth, Gentleman, Bradney records that David Gam's; "seat was the castle called Hengwrt (Old Court), of which only the moat remains.

[1] In 1646, towards the end of the First English Civil War and after a three-month siege, Raglan Castle was surrendered to the Parliamentary forces of Thomas Fairfax by Henry Somerset, 1st Marquess of Worcester.

[4] Describing Hen Gwrt in his 2016 walking guide Offa's Dyke Pass, Mike Dunn writes; "the moat is clogged with bulrushes but still very picturesque and the site is open and grassy.

"[14] Writing in 2000, in his Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500, Anthony Emery noted that "Hen Gwrt is one of the few (moated) sites to have been thoroughly examined.

[1] By the time of later excavations in the 1950s all traces of the stone foundations had gone, although elements indicating the earlier, timber-framed, manor house of the Bishops of Llandaff were uncovered.