Dolforwyn Castle

This hill top castle is set dramatically above the river Severn near Abermule on the A483, five miles north-east of Newtown. The map below shows the position of a small car park, from where it is a steep climb to the castle.
SO 152951

Dolforwyn was built in 1273 by the Welsh leader Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. Having been victorious against Simon de Montfort at the battle of Evesham in 1265, King Henry III sought a long-term peace with the Welsh. At the 1267 Treaty of Montgomery, Llywelyn was confirmed in many of the lands he had conquered in Wales and acknowledged for the first and only time as the ‘Prince of Wales’. But Edward I was a very different king from his father and, on his accession to the throne in 1272, the relationship between the Welsh prince and the English crown deteriorated. Llywelyn saw the need for a new strategically-placed castle, but the king saw Dolforwyn as a serious provocation, as it was just five miles from his own castle at Montgomery. When Edward demanded that he stop building the castle, Llywelyn refused saying that, as Prince of Wales, he didn’t need permission to build whatever he liked on his own land. He was not to enjoy the use of Dolforwyn for long however. In 1277 Roger Mortimer (d1282) besieged the castle and, after two weeks, the garrison had to surrender for lack of water. In Mortimer hands, it never played a significant role in the following years and was allowed to gradually decay, being declared ruinous by 1398.

The ground plan and a significant amount of masonry of this Welsh-designed castle survive and it is well worth a visit.