Researchers conducting a non-invasive survey at Pembroke Castle, West Wales, believe they might have uncovered the location of king Henry VII’s birthplace.

As aerial photographs from 2013 gave glimpses of what lay beneath the surface, with parch marks revealing possible buildings the latest non-invasive geophysical survey has confirmed the outline of a late-medieval building in the outer ward. Archaeologists believe that it is the building where the king could have been born. The survey also revealed up to three previously unknown buildings in the inner ward, as well as several buildings and a possible well in the outer ward.

Henry VIII was born in in 1457 and was king of England from August 1485 until his death in 1509. Much of the interior of the castle, which dates from the 11th Century, was destroyed after the Middle Ages. The survey, consisting of magnetic and geoelectric measurements, is said to have increased immeasurably the knowledge about the castle in Pembroke, which is dubbed one of Wales’ greatest but also least understood castles. The survey, carried out by Dyfed Archaeology Trust, was funded by the Castle Studies Trust.

(after BBC News & Castle Studies Trust)