Dolforwyn Castle

Dolforwyn was established by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Gwynedd, in the late 13th century, on a wooded ridge commanding the upper Severn Valley above Abermule — a fine example of native Welsh castle design rather than the work of the Cambro-Normans. Built without the authorisation of the new English king Edward I, whose frontier post stood at Montgomery Castle, it fed growing tensions between the king, Llywelyn, and Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn of southern Powys.

In 1277, shortly after the castle was completed, Roger Mortimer, Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, and Otto de Grandson besieged it. A letter written from Dolforwyn, attributed to de Lacy or Grandson, is considered instrumental in bringing Master James of Saint George to Wales — the man who would go on to build Flint, Rhuddlan, Conwy, Caernarfon, Harlech and Beaumaris.

The castle then passed down the Mortimer line — on Roger's death in 1282 to his son Edmund, then to Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, who lost the family estates in 1322 after an act of treason. Ownership later passed to the Earls of Powis, and the site was bought by the grandfather of the antiquarian John Davies Knatchbull Lloyd before being given to the Welsh Ancient Monuments Board, now Cadw, in 1955. It survives as an excavated monument open to the public.