As you can see, the castle was situated in very wild and mountainous countryside - Snowdonia, to those of you abroad - North Wales.
Llewellyn ap Iowerth (Llewellyn the Great) was born in 1173 and died in 1240. He controlled the roads of this area, and grazing land immediately surrounding the castle (which he utilised for his many cattle - cattle were money in those days) and sought to overthrow his two uncles (who had split his father's kingdom between them on his death) but by 1200 he controlled Gwynedd in its entirety. HERE is the link to the Wikipedia entry about him.
This view is looking westwards, towards the coast.
This lovely house was taken with my zoom lens as it was the other side of the valley.
Below - you can see from this rich pasture how good the grazing was and is.
A staircase to nowhere now.
Sorry I cut off the bottom of the information about the room below. You can see the round pillar of stone which would have been much higher and supported the fireplace in the wooden floor.
My husband suggested that dragging a trebuchet up THAT steep hill might have been a non-starter if you were trying to attack the castle!
The walls were immensely thick - 10 feet in places.
Looking down on the entrance with its "trap" areas. I've never seen this set-up anywhere else.
More photos tomorrow.
Great photos.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jill. Now for the words!
ReplyDeleteA good story of the time and lovely photos
ReplyDeleteI wish I had been a bit more awake but posting last thing is never good for me (I'm a morning person) but I will try and include some more history in the next post.
DeleteI know it is much later but very Iron Ageish, a romantic ruin in the middle of nowhere, life was hard in those days!
ReplyDeleteI did wonder if there was an Iron Age fort underneath all that - perfect spot for it. Life would not have been much fun - particularly in the winter, with rain coming sideways at you.
ReplyDeleteA great post - the castle is amazing - it looks from the photos as though it has a good atmosphere :) The views are stunning and you can see exactly why the castle was built there.
ReplyDeleteThe atmosphere was a little lost because of the families there - I'd like to go back in autumn and see what I can pick up.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting old history! Rocks and Castles and green valleys do conjure up images in my mind of Wales. I am looking forward to more!
ReplyDeleteHi Chip. Glad you're enjoying it. Will do another post tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteLoving the pictures and the history lesson. Those lush grazing grounds are something else.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Considering the drought we have had this summer, they were incredibly lush, but North Wales has had more rain than us down in the S-W of Wales.
ReplyDelete