Dryslwyn Castle is a native Welsh

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

, sited on a hill roughly halfway between Llandeilo

Llandeilo

Llandeilo is a town in Carmarthenshire, Wales, situated at the crossing of the River Towy by the A483 on a 19th century stone bridge. Its population is 1,731.The town is served by Llandeilo railway station on the Heart of Wales Line.- Early history :...

 and Carmarthen

Carmarthen

Carmarthen is a community in, and the county town of, Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is sited on the River Towy north of its mouth at Carmarthen Bay. In 2001, the population was 14,648....

 in Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. It is notable inasmuch as it is the only native Welsh castle with three wards.

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

Dinefwr

Dinefwr was a local government district of Dyfed, Wales from 1974 to 1996. It was named after Dinefwr Castle which was the royal capital of the Principality of Deheubarth and one of the three principal royal courts of Wales....

, 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

Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...

, 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

Rhys ap Maredudd

Rhys ap Maredudd was a senior member of the Welsh royal house of Deheubarth, a principality of Medieval Wales. He was the great grandson of The Lord Rhys , prince of south Wales, and the last ruler of a united Deheubarth...

, 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

Edward I of England

Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...

 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

Owain Glyndwr

Owain Glyndŵr , or Owain Glyn Dŵr, anglicised by William Shakespeare as Owen Glendower , was a Welsh ruler and the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales...

 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

Curtain wall (fortification)

A curtain wall is a defensive wall between two bastions of a castle or fortress.In earlier designs of castle the curtain walls were often built to a considerable height and were fronted by a ditch or moat to make assault difficult....

 to the inner ward only stands 1m high. There is a garderobe

Garderobe

The term garderobe describes a place where clothes and other items are stored, and also a medieval toilet. In European public places, a garderobe denotes the cloakroom, wardrobe, alcove or an armoire. In Danish, Dutch, German and Spanish garderobe can mean a cloakroom. In Latvian it means checkroom...

 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

Round tower

Round tower may refer to:Types of tower:* Irish round tower, a type of early mediaeval stone tower* Broch, a type of Iron Age drystone structure found in Scotland* Round-tower church, a type of church found mainly in England...

, the original keep. The foundations of the original great hall and Maredudd ap Rhys

Maredudd ap Rhys

Maredudd ap Rhys was a Welsh language poet and priest from Powys.Maredudd composed poems on themes of love, religion and nature.He is thought to have been the bardic tutor to Dafydd ab Edmwnd.-References:...

' hall survive.

External links

• http://www.acadat.com/HLC/HLCTowy/area/area224.htm
• http://homepage.mac.com/philipdavis/Welshsites/217.html
• www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Dryslwyn Castle and surrounding area
• Abandoned Communities .... Dryslwyn and Dinefwr castles and the towns close to them