Dolwyddelan Castle
| Dolwyddelan Castle | ||
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 The ruins of Dolwyddelan Castle |
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| Alternative name (s): | Castell Dolwyddelan | |
| Creation time : | 13th Century | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Geographical location | 53 ° 3 '9.4 " N , 3 ° 54' 25.2" W | |
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Dolwyddelan Castle is a ruined castle in Conwy , Wales . Classified as a Grade I Cultural Monument and protected as a Scheduled Monument , the ruin is one of the most important of the castles built by the Welsh princes.
location
The ruin is west of the village of Dolwyddelan in Snowdonia National Park . It lies on a steep ridge above the Afon Lledr valley .
history
It is said that the Welsh prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth was born in the castle around 1173 . Presumably, however, there was no castle at the current location at that time, but Llywelyn was probably born in the nearby, older Tomen Castell castle . The location of the castle was moved from Llywelyn to its present location at the beginning of the 13th century, but the stone keep was not built until around 1220. Two important access routes to Snowdonia, including the Conwy Valley , could be controlled from the castle .
The castle later served as a residence for Llywelyn ap Gruffydd , who received Gruffydd ap Maredudd and four other Welsh lords from Deheubarth and Ceredigion in the castle in May 1278 , although after his defeat by Edward I in the war of 1277 he was no longer their overlord was. During the conquest of Wales by Edward I , the castle was conquered by English troops on January 18, 1283, presumably without a fight. After the English conquest, the castle served as a base for an English garrison, but it was abandoned at the latest after the Welsh revolt of 1294 , which had made it clear how difficult it was to supply the remote castles in the highlands of Wales in case of defense.
In 1402 the castle probably served as a prison for the English Baron Reginald Gray, 3rd Baron Gray de Ruthin , who was captured by Owain Glyndŵr . In 1488 the Welsh nobleman Maredudd ap Ievan bought the castle and expanded the keep. After his death in 1525, his descendants moved to Gwydir Castle , while Dolwyddelan Castle was abandoned and fell into disrepair. In the course of a strengthening Welsh national consciousness, the then owner Willoughby de Eresby had the keep restored in 1848. The ruins are now managed by Cadw and can be visited.
investment
The small castle lies on a ridge, from which it is separated in the north and south by deep moats. The small, horseshoe-shaped inner courtyard was surrounded by a circular wall, of which only the foundation wall has been preserved. On the northeast side is the main entrance to the castle, which, as with almost all castles of the Welsh princes, led through a simple gate in the curtain wall. The keep was built on the eastern edge of the rock, the rectangular shape of which was already out of date at the time of construction. The tower originally had two upper floors above a basement, the access to the tower is on the first floor. The third floor was built after 1488. The west tower, of which only ruins remain, was probably built by the English after 1283.
literature
- Adrian Pettifer: Welsh Castles: A Guide by Counties . Boydell & Brewer , Woodbridge 2000. ISBN 978-0-85115-778-8 , pp. 35-36
Web links
- Internet presence of the castle near Cadw
- Dolwyddelan.org: Dolwyddelan Castle
- British Listed Buildings: Dolwyddelan Castle
Individual evidence
- ^ Adrian Pettifer: Welsh Castles: A Guide by Counties . Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 2000. ISBN 978-0-85115-778-8 , p. 35
- ^ Snowdonia National Park: Dolwyddelan Castle. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 18, 2014 ; accessed on October 13, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Ralph A. Griffiths: The revolt of Rhys ap Maredudd, 1287-88 . In: Welsh History Review (3) 1966, p. 124
- ↑ Michael Prestwich: Edward I . University of California Press, Berkeley 1988. ISBN 978-0-520-06266-5 , p. 195
