Laugharne Castle
| Laugharne Castle | ||
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 The main castle from the southwest |
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| Alternative name (s): | Castell Talacharn, Castell Abercorram | |
| Creation time : | from the early 12th century | |
| Conservation status: | Ruin in good condition | |
| Place: | Laugharne | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 46 '11 " N , 4 ° 27' 43" W | |
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Laugharne Castle ( Welsh : Castell Talacharn) is a ruined castle in Carmarthenshire , Wales . Classified as a Grade I cultural monument and protected as a Scheduled Monument , the ruin is known for its association with the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas .
history
On the low rise above the mouth of the River Tâf, there was probably a fortification already in Roman times. Around 1116, the Anglo-Norman nobleman Robert Courtemain built a small ring wall . The castle was part of a series of castles between Chepstow and Pembroke Castle designed to protect the main road through South Wales. In the second half of the 12th century the interior of the ring wall was partially filled and a stone rectangular hall was built in the northern part of the castle. On his return from Ireland, King Henry II met again in the castle in 1172 with the Welsh prince Lord Rhys , whom he had appointed royal counsel for South Wales. Lord Rhys, however, only considered himself personally connected to Heinrich, after his death he conquered and destroyed the castle in 1189. The rebuilt castle was conquered again by troops from Llywelyn ap Iorwerth during the wars towards the end of Johanns Ohneland's rule in 1215 . In 1248 the castle fell to Guy de Brian, an Anglo-Norman nobleman whose family originally came from Brienne . De Brian presumably began building the stone curtain wall. After the English defeat in the Battle of Cymerau in 1257, the castle and the neighboring Llansteffan Castle were conquered and destroyed by troops from Llywelyn ap Gruffydd in 1257. De Brian was captured. His son of the same name expanded the castle as a stone fortress. The seventh Guy de Brian , who inherited the castle in 1349, had the castle expanded to make it more comfortable. He died in 1390 without leaving any male descendants. His heirs neglected the castle, so that it partially fell into disrepair. In 1488 the castle fell to the Earl of Northumberland , and in 1535 the castle returned to the Crown.
Elisabeth I gave the castle to her favorite John Perrot in 1575 . Perrot, who also had his main residence, Carew Castle, expanded magnificently, turned the ruined castle into a homely country residence of the Elizabethan era . He had the outer bailey redesigned into a walled garden. Construction was still ongoing when he was arrested for treason in 1592 and imprisoned in the Tower of London . He died in November 1592 before he was sentenced. After his death, the castle fell back to the crown and fell into disrepair. During the English Civil War , the castle was conquered by royalists under Charles Gerard in 1644 , but after the defeat of Marston Moor in July that year, Gerard withdrew to England, leaving only a weak garrison. In October 1644, Major General Rowland Laugharne, who was born in Laugharne, appeared with 2000 troops in parliament and conquered the castle after a one-week siege. Then he had the fastenings dragged .
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the castle fell into romantic ruins. Immediately northeast of the outer gate, Castle House , a stately Georgian-style house , was built around 1730 . In 1798 the house fell through marriage to Richard Isaac Starke, who had the house rebuilt and a formal garden laid out on the site of the adjacent former outer bailey. A small summer house was built around 1830 on the ruins of a tower in the outer bailey. Castle House remained in the possession of the Starke family, only between 1934 and 1947 it was leased to the author Richard Hughes . In 1973 the owner Anne Starke handed the facility over to the state. After twenty years of restoration and excavations, the castle has been open to the public again since July 1996 and is now looked after by Cadw .
investment
The castle is located in the middle of the small town of Laugharne , in the southeast it borders the river Tâf. It got its original name Abercorram after the small River Coran, which flows along the western wall of the castle before it flows into the Tâf.
There are no visible remains of the earth and wood fortifications from the 12th century. The castle is accessed from the north through a double-towered gatehouse in the outer courtyard towards the end of the 13th century. In addition to the gatehouse, only a small remnant of the outer bailey's ring wall, which was built in the late 13th century, has been preserved, otherwise the pentagonal bailey is surrounded by a garden wall from the 18th century built on the old walls. The garden in the outer bailey was restored in the 1990s to the state of the early 19th century with gravel paths, rose beds and cut hedges. On the eastern wall is the small summer house that Hughes and Thomas used as a study. The single-storey building with a conical slate roof was built on the remains of a round tower and has a generous window front on the river side.
The main castle , which was previously enclosed by a curtain wall and its own moat, is accessed through a stately gatehouse from the 16th century on the west side. The representative building replaced the simple medieval gatehouse. On the north side of the courtyard there are two round towers from the 13th century, which are the oldest preserved buildings in the castle. The four-story north-western tower adjoining the gatehouse has stone vaults and served as a keep . Its homely furnishings, however, were very simple with only one fireplace and no latrines. The northeast tower had three floors and has partially collapsed. Another, small round tower from the late 13th century is located on the southwest corner of the main castle. In the 14th century the south-western curtain wall and the tower were expanded and raised. The greenish stones that were added later stand out clearly from the previously used red sandstone. While the main castle from the outside still gives the image of a well-fortified medieval castle, the ruins of the residential buildings from the 16th century predominate in the castle courtyard. Between the two round towers in the north, John Perrot had the curtain wall torn down in the 16th century and erected a large rectangular residential building instead. The residential building has a semicircular stair tower facing towards the outside. The walls and 16th century buildings on the east side of the castle were demolished during the Civil War. Of the hall on the south wall, originally built in the 14th century and expanded in the 16th century, only the foundations have been preserved.
Others
Turner used the ruins as a motif for his painting Laugharne Castle during a storm . Richard Hughes used the summer house as a study, this is where his novel In Hazard was written . From 1938 he also allowed his friend Dylan Thomas to use the summer house. From 1949 until his death in 1953, Dylan Thomas lived with his family in a converted boathouse not far from the ruins that he described in several of his poems.
literature
- Adrian Pettifer: Welsh castles. A guide by counties . Boydell & Brewer, Woodbridge 2000, ISBN 978-0-85115-778-8 , pp. 53f
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ British listed buildings: Laugharne Castle, market Street, Laugharne Township. Retrieved October 21, 2013 .
- ↑ Ancient Monuments: Laugharne Castle. Retrieved October 21, 2013 .
- ^ History of Laugharne. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 11, 2012 ; Retrieved October 22, 2013 .
- ↑ Coflein: LAUGHARNE CASTLE AND CASTLE HOUSE. (PDF; 134.9 KB) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 8, 2014 ; Retrieved October 22, 2013 .
- ^ British Listed Buildings: Gazebo in Grounds of Laugharne Castle, market Street, Laugharne Township. Retrieved October 22, 2013 .
- ^ New Quay: The Life of Dylan Thomas. Retrieved October 22, 2013 .