Castles in Wales

The importance of castle-building in the nascent Welsh state of the 1200s:

“As the major politics of the later twelfth and thirteenth centuries began to be characterized by the building of stone castles, whose significance was administrative and political as much as military, we find castle staff, castellans and castle clerks. Such castles were relatively numerous in Gwynedd, appearing throughout that land, as at Dolbadarn, Dolwyddelan, Castell y Bere, Degannwy, Ewloe, Dinas Emrys, Carndochan and Criccieth, but were also built or developed by the rulers of Gwynedd or their allies in locations beyond the heartlands of the Llywelyns, as at Dinas Bran above the Dee, Dolforwyn in Cedewain, Bryn Amlwg at the point where Ceri, Maelieneydd and Clun lordships met, and Rhyd y Briw (Sennybridge). In other territories, less amenable to Venedotian control, regional lords maintained important castles at Pool (Powis Castle), the caput of southern Powys and Llandovery, Dinefwr and Dryslwyn in Ystrad Tywi. The very look of the land in pura Wallia was changing: castles, courts and towns had a greater appearance of permanence; governance was making its mark”. -

D Stephenson

Pictured are Dolwyddelan, Castell Dinas Bran and Ewloe.