Billy Wynt

Billy Wynt is an unusually named cylindrical stone structure standing on a hilltop outside the village of Llantrisant in south Wales. The relatively austere single-story building has only a door on the outside and a staircase on the inside. However, Billy Wynt’s name is not the most unusual aspect of this stubby building. The history of the building is so unclear that no one really knows when exactly it was constructed or what its original purpose was. 

Traditional histories of the area assert that Billy Wynt was the base of a windmill that was partly demolished during a Welsh uprising in 1280, but no clear records indicate that a windmill stood at the site. Other historians have inferred that, because of the building’s views over the surrounding area, it could have been an auxiliary tower for the nearby castle in Llantrisant. Alternativeely, it may have been a simple storage building. The structure first appears in a map of the area in 1729, but at that point in time, it was labelled as “an old tower,” providing no clear indications as to what the building was originally used for. 

In 1889, Billy Wynt was acquired by the newly formed Llantrisant Town Trust, and it was rebuilt as a folly in 1890. The trust still owns and maintains the building today, and the people of Llantrisant recognize Billy Wynt as a quirky part of their local heritage.