castles built by the Welsh Kings/Princes

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This post was inspired by comments made by Neil Kinnock, who called Welsh kings and princes ''ennobled brigands.''

This comment is so far from the truth , you need to ask the question , has this man ever read a Welsh history book? If he had, he surely himself would know he is talking utter rubbish.

The motive for his comment is to discredit the very idea of a Welsh nation during the 1979 devolution referendum campaign, the no to devolution side were extremely negative and anti-Welsh, their job was to convince the Welsh people that Wales is glorified county with not history, no achievements, held back by a language that should have died long ago, anything that give Wales a separate identity, or made Welsh people proud was attacked.

Anyway, back to the comment, i did a post a while back showing why he was talking utter tripe, but i decided to go a little bit more in-depth and look at what made these rulers as noble and royal as any other monarchs in Europe.

The first thing we will look at is Castles, all Welsh rulers built them, like the rest of this island most were made out of wood, but eventually they started using stone.

One of the greatest Welsh ruler was Llywelyn the Great, he was also the biggest castle builder of them all, it is his castles that we look at here, along with a few others worth mentioning.

many of the pictures are from  medievalheritage.eu


Caergwrle Castle

located in the town of Caergwrle, in Flintshire,
It was built by the Welsh under Dafydd ap Gruffydd in service to Edward I of England.

pictures from medievalheritage.eu


Castell y Bere

Castell y Bere was built in the 1220s by Llywelyn the Great, ruler of nearly all of Wales,
This is a personal favourite of  mine, in one of the most beautiful parts of Wales, as you can see from the Google Maps screenshot below.







Criccieth Castle

was built around 1230 by Llywelyn the Great 

As you can see, only the red bits were built by the English to strengthen it, As with all Welsh castles, it is built in a strongly defensible position.








Ewloe Castle 

built by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd after a successful campaign where he conquered all of North Wales.

You will notice the D shape tower, this is something that all native Welsh castles have in common.

Here is a quote from Lise Hull on https://www.castlewales.com/d_tower.html

''The hallmark of the native Welsh castle is the apsidal or D-shaped tower. Often times, the Welsh castle contained one tower (the keep) and a small enclosure, or two towers, one of which would be D-shaped. While the English built both rectangular and round towers, the Welsh took the benefits of both designs and created the D-shaped great tower. The exterior face was curved and offered a wide field of fire, while the flatter interior face allowed for more spacious interior rooms, and thus were more livable. The curved face could also withstand undermining and bombardment much better than a flat surface. Castell y Bere, Ewloe (pictured above), Carndochan, and Dinas Bran in the north are all marked by apsidal towers, while in the south, the castles at Dinefwr and Dryslwyn also had D-shaped towers.''




Dinefwr Castle







Carndochan Castle

 built in two phases in the early 13th century, during the reign by Llywelyn the Great.











Deganwy Castle

Dolbadarn Castle

Dolforwyn Castle Dolwyddelan Castle


Dolwyddelan Castle
Ewloe Castle
Castell y Bere
Deganwy Castle
Dinefwr Castle
Aberdyfi Castle

Crug Eryr Castle
Castell Dinas Bran
Dryslwyn Castle
Caergwrle Castle
Dafydd ap Gruffydd
Carreg Cennen Castle
Dolforwyn Castle
Dinefwr Castle
rhys ap twder
Nevern Castle
Newcastle Emlyn
Carreg Cennen Castle







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