Wales · Ruin
Newcastle Emlyn Castle
Castell Newydd Emlyn
Newcastle Emlyn Castle is a ruined medieval stone castle in the market town of Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire, Wales, set on a steep promontory within a loop of the River Teifi. Built around 1240, the surviving remains include the twin-towered gatehouse, adjacent towers, fragments of curtain wall and a vaulted cellar beneath the north tower.
Its prime
1600
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1600
What Newcastle Emlyn Castle looked like in its prime.
Stone castle perched on a steep-sided promontory inside a loop of the River Teifi, approached by land from the west. Primary visible feature is the twin-towered gatehouse with a wide arched gateway; the towers are semi-octagonal externally and rectangular internally. A triangular inner ward lay immediately behind the gatehouse, with a curtain wall formerly running around the promontory; a square tower stands south of the gatehouse. Masonry is rough grey rubble stone; under the north tower a vaulted cellar survives.
Its story
The story of Newcastle Emlyn Castle.
Maredudd ap Rhys and the New Castle of about 1240
A castle at Emlyn appears in the chronicle Brut y Tywysogion as having been seized by Llywelyn the Great, though that was probably an older structure on the site. The stone castle that followed was probably raised in about 1240 by the Welsh lord Maredudd ap Rhys — if so, one of the few castles in West Wales built in stone by the Welsh rather than by their English rivals. Its builder chose the ground well: a steep-sided promontory in a loop of the River Teifi, approachable by land only from the west, so that any attacker had a single narrow line of advance against the twin-towered gatehouse.
Sixty Oxen up the Teifi Valley: the Siege of 1287
In 1287 Maredudd's son Rhys ap Maredudd rebelled against the English and was besieged at Dryslwyn Castle. When that stronghold fell he fled here, and the English brought their siege engine after him — hauled from Dryslwyn to Cardigan by forty oxen, then up the Teifi valley to Newcastle Emlyn by sixty. The castle fell in January 1288, passing into English hands and bringing Rhys ap Maredudd's revolt to an end.
From 1343 it was one of 26 castles, mostly in Wales, owned by Edward the Black Prince as part of the estates that came with his creation as Prince of Wales. Under his ownership one custodian, Richard de la Bere, held the post for nineteen years.
Glyndŵr's Rising, the Siege of 1645 and the Slighting
The Welsh took the castle back in 1403 during the Glyndŵr Rising. Repaired in the fifteenth century — Sir Rhys ap Thomas added larger windows around 1500 — it was still recorded in good condition in the early seventeenth century, in time for one last war. In the English Civil War it changed hands several times and was besieged by parliamentary troops in 1645. A document of about 1700 recorded the outcome: the castle had been "dismantled in the late Civill warres and plundered and ever since neglected".
The ruin is now protected as a scheduled monument and, since 1991, a Grade I listed building.
Step inside
12 places to explore in 1600.
The record describes 12 distinct spots at Newcastle Emlyn Castle, including 6 interiors: vaulted cellar under the north tower, gatehouse upper floor, latrine projections at the gatehouse towers and more. 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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