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The Vardre Deganwy Conwy_County Wales
Degannwy Castle is located above the village of Deganwy, on the east bank of the River Conwy estuary.<br><br>
Maelgwyn built his castle on the Vardre in 520 AD - a wooden fortified
royal residence, destroyed by fire after a lightning strike in 860 AD.
Rebuilt twice, and finally destroyed by Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, in
1230 AD.<br><br>
Like many other key medieval monuments in Wales, Degannwy Castle is
barely known to the tens of thousands of visitors who pass by on their
way to the picturesque seaside resort of Llandudno. Yet this hidden gem
on the Vardre hillside in Deganwy has extraordinary stories to tell
about the life and times of Wales’s native princes. <br><br> Cadw, the
Welsh heritage organisation, has been working to protect and to
interpret the fragmentary and fragile remains of Deganwy castle. The
early stages of the project included detailed archaeological and
conservation surveys, followed by a challenging programme of masonry
consolidation of the surviving walls on the twin hilltops of the Vardre.In 2011 I visited the site while taking a walk along
the Conwy estuary and there were three gentlemen, stonemasons and
labourers I presume, who were working on the consolidation works. I
asked their names, as previously I have been limited to the usual line
“this castle was built by King Whatever†which was obviously untrue. <br><br>
However they were not forthcoming, I felt they thought that it was
inappropriate – maybe they would lose their jobs. Surely, Cadw cannot be
that bad an employer, but then I suppose they are better placed than
the original stonemasons who would lose their heads! <br><br>
Copyright Frances Lynch 1995. A Guide to Ancient and Historic Wales. HMSO <br><br>
The twin rocks of Degannwy have been the focus of settlement and warfare
for more than a thousand years but because they have been fought over
so ferociously, little survives for the modern visitor to see. However,
though the castle walls have been reduced to little more than rubble,
the hilltop is still an evocative place. <br><br>
During the post-Roman period the hill became a place of major political
importance, the court of Maelgwyn Gwynedd, the foremost historical
figure of the 6th century in north Wales, patron of St Cybi and St
Seiriol, but reviled as a drunken tyrant by the chronicler Gildas.
Excavations on the western summit in 1961-66 confirmed occupation in the
5th and 6th centuries. <br><br>
Documents show that the Norman, Robert of Rhuddlan, built a castle here
in 1080, but nothing remains of it. It was later regained by the Welsh,
and in 1191 Giraldus Cambrensis described it in the Itinerarium Cambriae
as a "noble structure." However, it was soon to be destroyed as part of
a scorched earth policy in the face of threats from King John. <br><br>
When Llywelyn ap Iorwerth regained the castle in 1213 he rebuilt it in
good style. Only a little of this castle survives today. In 1228 it is
recorded that he imprisoned one of his sons here. After Llywelyn's death
in 1240 his sons were not strong enough to resist the English advance
and demolished the castle in anticipation of its loss. When the English
arrived in 1245 they were forced to shiver in tents, so effective had
been the Welsh destruction. <br><br>
The campaign of Henry III saw the construction of walls and towers, the
ruins of which survive today. The castle, with towers on each hilltop
and a bailey on the saddle between, had an associated borough which
received a charter in 1252. It was under construction from 1245-54 but
was never completely finished. <br><br>
As Henry became more embroiled with his own troubles, the power of the
Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd was growing. In 1263, after a long
siege, he captured this outpost of English power and systematically
demolished it. When Henry's son, Edward, advanced across this territory
in 1283 he camped at the ruins of Degannwy, but recognizing the greater
strategic value of a riverside site and also the political impact of a
castle across the river Conwy, which up until then had been the frontier
of the essential Gwynedd, he founded his new castle at Conwy. Degannwy
was abandoned. <br><br>
The ruins visible today belong mainly to Henry III's castle. The
defences of the bailey - earth banks and ditches on the north side, the
base of two D-shaped gatehouse towers, and the curtain wall hastily
built by Edward I on the south - can still be recognized. The mass of
fallen masonry near the base of the gatehouse is a relic of the
demolition of 1263. <br><br>
The western summit, which was the scene of all earlier occupation, has
the more interesting remains. Having passed over the ruins of the gate
to the bailey, turn left up a path on the line of the original access
road, revetted and overlooked by a substantial round tower. It passes
through the site of two narrow gates before turning up to the summit. <br><br>
Henry 111’s wall continues along the west side of the summit, but just
beyond the north-west corner it overlies the base of a round tower and a
length of revetment wall which must belong to the castle of Llywelyn ap
Iorwerth. Excavations showed that the earlier castle was better built
than the later one and, to judge from a finely carved corbel (thought to
portray Llywelyn himself), it was elegantly appointed. The quarry on
the summit must have been the source of stone to build the castle; the
wall foundations close are thought to date from 1215, while the range of
foundations and the great tower on the south side date from 1247-8
(Henry 111). <br><br>
The grass-grown foundations of a D-shaped tower (traditionally known as
Mansell’s Tower) on the east summit also belong to the later phase.
There is no easy path to the top. The curtain wall was never completed
round the north side of the bailey, which retains an earth bank and
ditch defence. Surface irregularities around the castle belong to the
abandoned borough founded in 1242. Cultivation ridges can be seen, but
no house foundations. Practice trenches from the First World War are
visible on the south.
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