Caerphilly Castle: An Anglo-Norman Fortress in South Wales
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Norman
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page14 sections
History
Caerphilly Castle is a medieval Anglo-Norman fortress in Caerphilly, United Kingdom, built from 1268 during the expansion of Norman and other continental lords into South Wales. Its construction formed part of the de Clare family’s campaign to conquer and control Glamorgan, and its concentric defences and extensive water system later influenced Edward I’s castle-building programme in North Wales.
Building the fortress
The de Clare family acquired the earldom of Glamorgan in 1217. Gilbert de Clare inherited the family lands in 1263 and supported Henry III during the political conflicts of the 1260s, when the English king faced both Welsh opposition and rebel barons. After Gilbert occupied northern Glamorgan, he began Caerphilly Castle in 1268.
The fortress stood in the Rhymney Valley beside the Rhymney River and near a former Roman fort. Its position placed it among local roads and paths, allowing Gilbert to strengthen his control over the territory he had acquired. Construction advanced quickly, with most of the work completed within about three years, although further defensive additions continued until around 1290. The architect is unknown, and the cost may have reached approximately £19,000, a sum comparable with the expenditure on major castles such as Conwy and Caernarfon.
Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the leading Welsh prince of the later thirteenth century, opposed Gilbert’s expansion into Glamorgan. His forces attacked and burned Caerphilly in 1270, probably destroying temporary wooden defences and stored supplies. In 1271, the bishops Roger de Meyland and Godfrey Giffard took possession of the castle and tried to suspend the building work. Gilbert’s men retook it in February of the following year, allowing construction to resume.
Gilbert eventually completed the castle and secured his authority across Glamorgan. The design probably drew on his experience at the siege of Kenilworth in 1266. Its multiple lines of walls and carefully controlled lakes and channels created a model that was later developed in Edward I’s programme of concentric castles in North Wales.
Conflict in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries
In 1290 Gilbert de Clare disputed with Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and the resulting legal case led to the Crown’s temporary seizure of Caerphilly. During the revolt of Madog ap Llywelyn in 1294, Morgan ap Maredudd attacked the castle and burned half of the town but failed to take the fortress. Gilbert defeated Morgan’s forces between April and May 1295, although he died later that year.
Gilbert’s son, also named Gilbert de Clare, inherited the castle but was killed at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. While the family lands were under royal control, Llywelyn Bren’s revolt began in January 1316. His forces attacked Caerphilly, but the castle resisted. The town was destroyed, and a royal army later defeated Llywelyn Bren and lifted the siege.
In 1317 Edward II assigned Glamorgan and Caerphilly Castle to Eleanor de Clare, the wife of the king’s favourite, Hugh le Despenser. Hugh expanded his influence across South Wales and commissioned Thomas de la Bataile and William Hurley to enlarge and embellish the Great Hall in 1325 and 1326.
Edward II and Hugh le Despenser stayed at Caerphilly in 1326 while fleeing the forces of Isabella of France. They left substantial stores and £14,000 in the castle. William la Zouche then besieged the fortress with 425 soldiers. Constable Sir John de Felton, Hugh’s son Hugh le Despenser, and a garrison of 130 men held out until March 1327, when they surrendered on the condition that the younger Hugh would be pardoned. His father had already been executed.
Caerphilly was therefore drawn into the Welsh conflicts of 1294, 1316, and 1326 to 1327. Its exact role in the Glyndŵr Rising, the Welsh revolt that began in 1400 under Owain Glyndŵr, remains uncertain, but the castle appears to have passed through that conflict without serious damage.
Later medieval ownership and decline
In 1416 the castle passed through Isabel le Despenser to her husbands Richard de Beauchamp, Earl of Worcester, and later Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Isabel and her second husband repaired the fortress and adapted it as their principal residence in the region. It passed to Richard Neville in 1449 and to Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, in 1486.
After 1486, Caerphilly declined as Cardiff Castle became the more fashionable regional residence. During the sixteenth century, the lakes probably drained when their sluice gates fell into disrepair, while sections of the walls were stripped for building stone. John Leland visited around 1539 and described the castle as largely ruined, with marshland around it. Henry Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, later used the site for his manorial court. Thomas Lewis, who leased the property in 1583, removed much of its stone to enlarge his house.
During the English Civil War, the conflict between Royalists and supporters of Parliament, a small fort or sconce was built on the site of the former Roman fort northwest of the castle between 1642 and 1646. Its guns commanded the castle interior, although it is uncertain whether Royalist or Parliamentary forces built it. It is also uncertain whether Parliament deliberately damaged Caerphilly. The collapse of several towers in the eighteenth century was probably caused by subsidence after the water defences receded rather than by an ordered demolition.
Protection and restoration
The Marquesses of Bute acquired Caerphilly Castle in 1776. John Stuart, the first marquess, took measures to protect the ruins. The third marquess commissioned William Frame to survey the site, reroofed the Great Hall in the 1870s, and purchased surrounding leasehold properties to remove houses that encroached on the castle.
The fourth marquess, John Crichton-Stuart, commissioned extensive restoration between 1928 and 1939. The fifth marquess, also named John Crichton-Stuart, gave the castle and its grounds to the state in 1950. The lakes were refilled, and restoration continued through the 1950s and 1960s. Cadw, the Welsh heritage agency, manages the castle in the twenty-first century. It is protected as a scheduled monument and a Grade I listed building, a status granted to the building in 1963.
Remains
Caerphilly Castle occupies about 30 acres, or 12 hectares, on a natural gravel bank in the local river basin. Its walls are built from Pennant sandstone. The surviving complex is organized into eastern defences, the Central Island, and the Western Island. The Outer East Moat and North Lake protect the eastern side, while the South Lake chiefly protects the central and western fortifications.
Water defences and eastern approach
The castle’s artificial lakes, moats, dams, sluices, and fortified islands form an integrated defensive system. The water obstacles protected the walls against siege mining, a method of undermining foundations from below, and are regarded as among the most advanced water defences in Britain. Together with the concentric wall system, they gave the fortress its distinctive military layout.
Outer Main Gatehouse
The Outer Main Gatehouse controlled the approach to the eastern defences. Its circular towers stood on spurred, pyramidal bases, a form associated with castles in South Wales. The original route crossed two successive drawbridges, controlled bridges over defensive water, with an intervening tower between them. That tower has since been destroyed.
North Dam and South Dam
Three substantial towers protect the North Dam, which may also have supported the castle stables. Subsidence has damaged the structure, but the dam still retains the North Lake. The South Dam extends for about 152 metres and ends in a large buttressed wall. The remains of the castle mill survive there, and the mill was originally powered by water from the dam. Four replica siege engines are displayed at the site.
Felton’s Tower and South Gatehouse
Felton’s Tower is a square fortification at the end of the South Dam. It protected the sluice gates that regulated the dam’s water levels. Nearby, the South Gatehouse, also called Giffard’s Tower, was originally approached by drawbridge and provided access toward the town.
Central Island and inner wards
The Central Island contains the inner defences, arranged on a roughly square plan around the inner and middle wards. Caerphilly is an early and influential example of a concentric castle in Britain. Its inner and middle wards form two enclosed rings of walls, with the inner walls overlooking the middle-ward defences. The middle-ward walls were probably much higher in the medieval period than they are today.
Gatehouses and inner fortifications
A drawbridge and two eastern gatehouses provided access to the Central Island. The Inner East Gatehouse was based on the gatehouse at Tonbridge, built in the 1250s. It had two large flanking towers, portcullises, vertically descending fortified gates, and murder-holes, openings above a gate or passage through which defenders could drop missiles or other materials. Its size allowed it to serve defensive and residential purposes, probably accommodating the constable and his family. Another pair of gatehouses protected the western side.
The inner ward has four corner turrets. Probable subsidence caused its southeast tower to lean outward at an angle of 10 degrees. This damage forms part of the surviving physical character of the inner defences.
Great Hall and residential buildings
The Great Hall and the principal residential buildings occupy the inner ward. The hall was probably divided by wooden screens and had coloured decoration, elaborate carving, and a large central fireplace. Medieval carved corbels, stone supports beneath the roof, survive in the hall as male and female heads. They may represent members of the royal court of the 1320s, including Edward II, Isabella of France, Hugh le Despenser, and Eleanor de Clare.
The castle chapel stood east of the Great Hall above the buttery and pantry. A buttery was a service room for drink and table equipment, while a pantry stored bread and other provisions. West of the hall, two solar blocks contained private apartments. A solar was a private residential chamber associated with the lord’s household, and these apartments had luxurious fittings.
Western Island and earlier fortifications
The Western Island was probably reached by drawbridges and may have offered refuge to the town during conflicts. It is associated with the Welsh names Y Weringaer and Caer y Werin, meaning “the people’s fort.” On its northwestern side lies the site of a former Roman fort covering about 3 acres, or 1.2 hectares. The remains of the seventeenth-century Civil War fortification built on that site also survive.
The artificial lakes and dams, concentric walls, large gatehouses, and fortified islands preserve the main elements of Caerphilly’s defensive design. The arrangement was probably inspired by Kenilworth and helped establish a model later used in Edward I’s castles in North Wales.
