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.
