Carreghofa Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carreghofa Castle is a castle in Powys , Wales . The site, protected as a Scheduled Monument , is located west of the village of Llanymynech .

The castle was built in 1101 by Robert of Bellême . Robert supported Robert Curthose's claim to the throne , which, however , could not prevail against his brother Heinrich I. When Robert did not submit to Heinrich, Heinrich conquered Robert's English possessions and castles, including Carreghofa Castle, in 1102. Henry II occupied the castle in 1159, but it was conquered in 1163 by the princes of Powys Owain Cyfeiliog and Owain Fychan . During a campaign by Henry II in Wales , the castle was recaptured by the Anglo-Normans in 1165. In 1187 it was again owned by Owain Fychan, who was killed in the castle during a night raid by Gwenwynwyn and Cadwallon, two sons of Owain Cyfeiliog.

In 1193 the Jew Joseph Aaron leased a silver mine near the castle. Operation of the mine began in June 1194, which is why the castle was occupied by an English garrison to protect the mine and fortified with a stone curtain wall. The silver was brought to the Shrewsbury Mint , but the mine did not produce the expected yield, so mining was stopped again in July 1195. In 1197, Gwenwynwn gave the captured Gruffydd ap Rhys , the eldest son of Lord Rhys , to the English and received the castle in return. After the fall of Gwynwynwyn, the castle was renovated in 1212 by the English governor Robert de Vieuxpont . Presumably it was destroyed during the wars of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth in the 1230s and was never rebuilt.

Only a few remains of the castle are preserved. The castle probably consisted of a rectangular ring wall , the earth and wooden fortifications of which were replaced by a stone ring wall towards the end of the 12th century . Today all that remains of the castle are the remains of a triangular, 26 x 14 m rampart, which slopes steeply to the west on the third side to the River Tanat .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ancient Monuments: Carreghofa Castle. Retrieved October 24, 2013 .
  2. ^ Martin Allen: Mints and money in medieval England. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2012. ISBN 978-1-107-01494-7 , pp. 243f

Coordinates: 52 ° 47 ′ 30.5 "  N , 3 ° 6 ′ 19.5"  W.