Cilgerran Castle

The first castle at Cilgerran was built by Gerald of Windsor around 1110-1115, and was little more than a wooden palisade set on a rocky promontory above the River Teifi, one side dropping directly onto a cliff face. It is the most northerly of all the castles in Pembrokeshire. That earth-and-timber work is believed to have been destroyed by Welsh forces, and a stone outer wall had replaced the palisade at some point before 1165, when Rhys ap Gruffydd attacked.

Rhys had taken Cardigan Castle a matter of weeks earlier, three miles downstream on the opposite bank of the Teifi. On capturing Cilgerran he destroyed it entirely, then began a reconstruction effort of his own in stone and lime mortar.

In 1204 the castle was taken back for the English by William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, who drove out Rhys's son Maelgwn ap Rhys. Marshal set about making repairs, but these proved ineffective: the castle was taken once more in 1215 by Llywelyn the Great, after a single day's battle.

William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, recaptured it in 1223 and began the rebuilding that gave Cilgerran its present form, work later completed by the de Cantilupe family. The size of the stones used in the parts surviving from this phase indicates it was raised at great haste. The defences were concentrated on the sides facing inland - two lines of defence, an outer bailey, and a pair of drum towers rather than the central keep typical of castles of the period - while the walls above the cliff top were the least heavily fortified. A ditch cut from the rock ringed the outside, thought once to have been spanned by a pivoting bridge, and the gatehouse stood at the south-east.

Cilgerran was not taken by Welsh forces after this period, though in 1258, when English forces were defeated nearby, the castle had to push back the forces of the Princes of Deheubarth.

Following the death of Anselm Marshal, 6th Earl of Pembroke, Cilgerran passed via a co-heiress to the de Cantilupe family, and in 1272, at the end of that line, to the Hastings family. The castle was allowed to go to ruin by 1387 and was thought to be deserted by 1400.

The lordship outlasted the building. It continued to be passed down through the Earls of Pembroke into the time of Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford, and in 1509 Gruffudd Vychan was named Steward of the Lordship of Cilgerran and Constable of Cilgerran Castle.

The ruin drew J. M. W. Turner more than once. Kilgarran Castle on the Twyvey; Hazy Sunrise, previous to a Sultry Day, Cilgerran Castle on the Teifi, Looking Upstream, and View in Wales: Mountain Scene with Village and Castle - Evening are all in the national collection at the Tate.

The 19th century saw continued decline: the dry ditch of the bailey was converted into the village pound, and the bailey's curtain wall fell in 1863 due to slate quarrying in the area. In 1938 the castle was presented to the National Trust, with Cadw holding the guardianship. It is a Grade I listed building, a scheduled monument and a National Monument of Wales, open to the public free of charge. In 2015 it was the site of a re-enactment of the Battle of Agincourt marking the 600th anniversary, and since 2024 Cadw have used the Welsh name Castell Cilgerran in English, as part of an effort to standardise the names in both languages.