The Ancient Fortress Of Deganwy In North Wales

The Ancient Fortress Of Deganwy In North Wales

The two rocks of Degannwy, overlooking Edward 1's great castle of Conwy, have been the focus of settlement and warfare for more than a thousand years but, because they have been fought over so viciously, little survives for the modern visitor to see. However, although the castle walls have been reduced to little more than rubble, the hilltop is still an evocative place, particularly at dusk, as the sun lowers over the sea.

At the end of the Roman period the hill became a place of major political importance, to 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 have confirmed occupation in the 5th and 6th centuries.

Documents show that the Norman Knight, 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.

When Llywelyn ap Iorwerth regained the castle in 1213 he rebuilt it. 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.

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.

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 1, 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 and its cut stone removed and incorporated into Conwy castles walls.

The visible ruins, 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.

 As an addendum, When the ruins were excavated by archaeologist Leslie Alcock in the 1960s a dozen sherds of Dark Age pottery which had been imported from the Mediterranean were discovered indicating the far-reaching contacts of Gwynedd's royal dynasty, and the strategic importance of the site