Wales · Ruin
Cilgerran Castle
Cilgerran Castle is a 13th-century stone castle on a rocky promontory above the River Teifi in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Largely ruinous today, its most visible surviving features are a pair of large cylindrical drum towers, stretches of curtain wall and a partly-surviving gatehouse.
First raised
1300
Its prime
1250
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1250
The shape it held in its prime.
A pair of large cylindrical (drum) towers of grey, coursed masonry dominate the silhouette, linked by stretches of curtain wall with arched openings and narrow vertical arrow-slits. The castle sits on a rocky promontory with one side dropping to the cliff above the River Teifi; the inner bailey is grassy and set into the rock. The gatehouse survives only in part and the curtain walls and tower tops are fragmentary, with a rock-cut ditch evident around the outer bailey.
Its story
The story of Cilgerran Castle.
The first castle at Cilgerran was built by Gerald of Windsor around 1110–1115 — little more than a wooden palisade on a rocky promontory above the River Teifi — and it changed hands repeatedly between English and Welsh forces over the following century. William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, took it back for the English in 1204, driving out Maelgwn ap Rhys.
Recaptured by William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, in 1223, the castle was rebuilt in stone into its present form, completed by the de Cantilupe family, to whom it passed via a co-heiress on the death of Anselm Marshal, 6th Earl of Pembroke. When that line ended in 1272 it went to the Hastings family, and it continued down through the Earls of Pembroke into the time of Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford.
Cilgerran was left to ruin and abandoned by 1400. Its defences were concentrated where it faces inland, with two lines of defence and a pair of drum towers in place of a central keep; a rock-cut ditch, once probably spanned by a pivoting bridge, rings the outside. The two great towers still stand. The National Trust took the castle in 1938, with Cadw holding guardianship, and entry is free.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1250.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Cilgerran Castle — including 1 interior: gatehouse passage. 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 Cilgerran Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1250 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate Castle to Explore →Whose castle
Clans who held Cilgerran Castle.
The families that held Cilgerran Castle for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
Marshal
Held by the Marshal Earls of Pembroke from 1204 until the death of Anselm Marshal, 6th Earl of Pembroke.
de Cantilupe
Passed to the de Cantilupes via a co-heiress; the family completed the stone castle, holding it until their line ended in 1272.
Hastings
Passed to the Hastings family in 1272.
