Dryslwyn Castle

Dryslwyn Castle

Coordinates: 51°51′45″N 4°06′05″W / 51.862443°N 4.101479°W / 51.862443; -4.101479

Dryslwyn Castle

Dryslwyn Castle is a native Welsh castle, sited on a hill roughly halfway between Llandeilo and Carmarthen in Wales. It is notable inasmuch as it is the only native Welsh castle with three wards.

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Excavation

Today only fragments of the castle remains and much of the castle has been revealed by excavation.

Castle of Deheubarth

Built probably in the 1220s by the princes of Deheubarth, Dryslwyn was, with its near neighbour at Dinefwr, for a long time central to the security of the kingdom. It was apparently assaulted in 1246, and underwent a lengthy period of expansion in the late thirteenth century. After the death of the last native prince of Wales, Dafydd ap Gruffudd, in 1283, the castle was one of the few remaining substantial stone castles in Wales to be held by a Welshman; the most prominent surviving Welsh lord, Rhys ap Maredudd, continued to augment the castle's defences. In 1287, however, he revolted against English rule, and the castle was besieged and captured by the forces of King Edward I later that year. Rhys's revolt petered out the following year, and Rhys himself was captured and executed in 1292.

Owain Glyndwr Rebellion

Dryslwyn was seized by Owain Glyndŵr in the summer of 1403. Owain Glyndwr is reputed to have spent a night inside the castle with the Warden previously.

The castle of limestone walls, was built in the 1220s, and appears to have been demolished in the early 15th Century, in an attempt to stop Welsh rebels using it . The polygonal inner ward contains principal remains to the south west, with traces of middle and outer wards to the north east. The early 13th Century curtain wall to the inner ward only stands 1m high. There is a garderobe to the east side, and a remodelled 13th Century gatehouse to the north east, surviving at foundation level only. On the south side of gatehouse is the round tower, the original keep. The foundations of the original great hall and Maredudd ap Rhys' hall survive.

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