Wales · Ruin
Builth Castle
Castell Llanfair-ym-Muallt
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
What Builth Castle looked like 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 explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Recreate Builth Castle with AI to explore it.
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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.
From the archive
Builth Castle on paper: the measured plan and period views.
The survey plan and photographs below are the ground truth this page's reconstructions are checked against, drawn and photographed while the castle was still a working garrison. Every image is public-domain or openly licensed, with its source named.
THE CASTLE OF BUILTH.
1884 · G. T. Clark, Mediaeval Military Architecture, vol. 1 (1884)
Public domain
Section at — A ---------------- B
1884 · G. T. Clark, Mediaeval Military Architecture, vol. 1 (1884)
Public domain
Section at — D ---------------- C
1884 · G. T. Clark, Mediaeval Military Architecture, vol. 1 (1884)
Public domain
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