Nevern Castle
| Nevern Castle | ||
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 Moth from Nevern Castle |
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| Alternative name (s): | Castell Nanhyfer | |
| Creation time : | 12th Century | |
| Castle type : | Spurburg | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Geographical location | 52 ° 1 '34.7 " N , 4 ° 47' 45.1" W | |
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Nevern Castle ( Welsh Castell Nanhyfer ) is a ruined castle in Wales in Great Britain . The ruin, protected as a Scheduled Monument , is located north of Nevern Village near Newport in Pembrokeshire and was one of the first stone castles in Wales.
history
Presumably the residence of the local Welsh ruler Cuhelyn was located on the site of the later castle in the 11th century . After the Norman conquest of Pembrokeshire around 1108, Robert FitzMartin , the new Anglo- Norman lord of Cemais, from the south-west of England, chose the site to build his new castle and built a motte with an extensive outer bailey . In 1136, after the Battle of Crug Mawr , the Welsh conquered Ceredigion and Nevern Castle. Ceredigion was then disputed between the principalities of Gwynedd and Deheubarth until it fell to Deheubarth in 1153. In 1171, the ruler of Deheubarth, Rhys ap Gruffydd , reached a settlement with the English King Henry II , after which he had to return some areas to the Anglo-Norman barons. Among them was Nevern Castle, which fell to the son of Robert FitzMartin, William FitzMartin . William married Angharad, a daughter of Rhys ap Gruffydd, in the 1170s. Presumably under him the castle was expanded as a stone fortress, possibly the expansion already took place under the rule of Rhys ap Gruffydd. William FitzMartin accompanied Richard the Lionheart on his crusade to Palestine in 1189 . During his absence, Rhys ap Gruffydd conquered the castle together with his son Gruffydd , but power struggles ensued within the family, during which Rhys ap Gruffydd was captured by his sons Hywel Sais and Maelgwn in 1194 and imprisoned in Nevern Castle. However, Hywel Sais soon released him, whereupon Maelgwn fled into exile until his father's death. Hywel Sais had the castle razed in 1195 so that it would not fall back into the hands of the English like Wiston and St Clears Castle .
During the Wars of Succession that followed the death of Rhys ap Gruffydd in 1197, the north of Pembrokeshire was retaken by the Anglo-Normans in 1204. William FitzMartin got his rule back, but instead of the ruined castle he founded Newport three kilometers east and built Newport Castle there as a new castle.
The partly densely wooded castle site was acquired by the Nevern Community Council in the 1980s. In cooperation with the administration of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and the Dyfed Archaeological Trust, the complex was archaeologically explored from 2008 to 2010 and then made accessible to visitors. Apart from the moats and ramparts, only small remains of the walls of the towers on the mounds of the castle have survived. The former castle is located about 150 m north of the church of Nevern and is freely accessible.
investment
The castle was built in the early 12th century as Motte and Bailey on a mountain spur above a gorge of the Gamman, a tributary of the Afon Nyfer (Nevern River). It is assumed that the castle site was already inhabited and possibly fortified before the 12th century, but the excavations carried out until 2010 did not find any prehistoric or early medieval finds.
Access to the castle was through a gate kennel formed by two walls on the north side of the castle. The wide, triangular outer bailey was protected by earth walls and palisades, and to the southeast the terrain slopes steeply to the Gamman River. The outer bailey contained several wooden residential and farm buildings. At the end of the 12th century, part of it was replaced by stone buildings. The stone buildings were built in a mixture of Welsh and Anglo-Saxon architectural styles made of slate, clay and hewn sandstone. At the western end of the outer bailey is the Motte, on the top of which there was a wooden tower, which was later replaced by a round stone tower. On the opposite side, in the middle or towards the end of the 12th century, a second, smaller moth was piled up over a rock. The hill was separated from the outer bailey by an 8 m deep and 8 m wide trench carved into the rock, and a rectangular tower and a small circular wall were built on the summit of the Motte.
Web links
- Nevern Castle website
- Pembrokeshire Coast National Park: Nevern Castle
- Castles of Wales: Nevern Castle
- Dyfed Archeology Trust: Nevern Castle 2009-10
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ancient Monuments: Castell Nanhyfer. Retrieved September 11, 2013 .
- ^ Dyfed Archeology: The Nevern Castle Project - Dig Diary. Retrieved September 11, 2013 .
- ↑ Chris Caple: Nevern Castle - Castell Nanhyfer. In: British Archeology. The voice of archeology in Britain and beyond. Episode 109, Nov./Dec. 2009. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 10, 2013 ; Retrieved September 11, 2013 .