Wales · Ruin
Builth Castle
Builth Castle was a stone castle erected by King Edward I on a pre-existing motte-and-bailey site just outside Builth Wells, Powys. Today no masonry survives; the site is represented by a large motte, ditches and embankments. The earthworks mark the footprint of a medieval castle that was used and repaired into the later Middle Ages before falling into ruin.
Its prime
1409
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1409
The shape it held in its prime.
Sited on a large grassy motte, the castle in its prime presents a compact stone stronghold: a stone keep crowning the motte and a surrounding stone curtain enclosing two distinct baileys. The baileys are defined by raised earthen banks and external ditches cutting into the surrounding pasture. The masonry is of grey medieval stone, the curtain wall running roughly 270 yards in length around the enclosed site, with the small town of Builth Wells visible nearby across rolling Powys countryside.
Its story
The story of Builth Castle.
Builth Castle was erected in 1277, the first castle built by King Edward I in Wales, on a pre-existing motte-and-bailey site just outside Builth Wells. In its day it was an impressive stone-built castle, but all the masonry has been removed over the years — what remains is the great mound on which it stood, with its ditches and embankments.
The castle moved with fourteenth-century politics. When Mortimer's property was seized on the king's orders, Buellt was taken by Gilbert Talbot, Justiciar of South Wales; Edward then rewarded Alice de Lacy and her husband Eubulus le Strange, who had assisted his counter-coup against Mortimer, with Builth for life. After Eubulus died in 1335 and Alice remarried, her new husband Hugh de Freyne was acknowledged by the King as lord of Builth.
Edward granted Builth to his son, the Black Prince, who in 1359 re-established a rental arrangement with the Mortimer family — still at 170 marks per half-year — while retaining the right to garrison the castle in times of war. The arrangement ended in the Wars of the Roses, when Richard of York, heir of the Mortimers, claimed the crown itself; hostilities closed when his heir Elizabeth of York married the man who became Henry VII.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1409.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Builth Castle — including the full exterior approach. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more photos, more angles and more rooms of the immersive experience.
Create History
Recreate Builth Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1409 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate Castle to Explore →Whose castle
Clans who held Builth Castle.
The families that held Builth Castle for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
Mortimer
Held Builth on a rental arrangement from the Black Prince from 1359 until the Wars of the Roses.
