Gwydir Castle

Gwydir Castle (Welsh: Castell Gwydir, pronounced [ˈkastɛɬ ˈɡwɨdir]) is in the Conwy valley, Wales, a mile west of the market town of Llanrwst and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) south of the large village of Trefriw. An example of a fortified manor house dating back to c. 1500, it is located on the edge of the floodplain of the river Conwy, and overlooked from the west by the slopes of Gwydir Forest.

The name Gwydir might derive from the Welsh gwo- 'under, low' and tir 'land', referring to the land beside the river Conwy. Sir John Wynn's The History of the Gwydir Family makes reference to the fact that some consider it a compound of Gwy and tir [wet + land] or of Gwaed and tir [blood + land]. Any similarity with the Welsh word gwydr 'glass' is coincidental.

There have been fortifications associated with this site since AD 600. In the Early Middle Ages, numerous skirmishes were fought in the area between the post-Roman kingdoms of Wales. Two significant encounters were in AD 610, when Llywarch Hen, a bardic prince of Rheged, fought a bloody battle nearby and later when the Kingdoms of Gwynedd and Deheubarth fought a major battle near Llanrwst in AD 954.

By the 14th century, the Welsh knight Hywel Coetmor, who had fought in the Hundred Years' War as a commander of longbowmen under Edward, the Black Prince at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, is recorded as the first owner of a manor house on the site. He would later go on to support the rising led by Owain Glyndŵr.

By the 16th century, Gwydir had become the seat of the powerful Wynn family who were descendants of the Kings of Gwynedd. The Wynns were one of the most significant families of north Wales during the Tudor and Stuart periods.

Following the Wars of the Roses, the castle was rebuilt by Meredith ap Ieuan ap Robert, the founder of the Wynn dynasty. The house incorporated re-used mediaeval material from the dissolved Maenan Abbey. The square turret at the rear of the Solar Tower contains a spiral staircase taken from the Abbey and many elaborately carved stones can also be seen. The turret was added around 1540 and John Wyn ap Maredudd's initials can be seen above the main entrance in the courtyard gatehouse along with the date of 1555.

Text adapted from “Gwydir Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Gwydir Castle ranks #2,946 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #52 of the 100 mapped in Wales. Founded c. 1500, it is older than 45% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 455 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,543 times in the last 60 days, more than 60% of the atlas. 10 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Wrexham, 55 km away. It is one of the 27 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of North Wales. See how Wales compares in the castle statistics.

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