My daughter says that Castell y Bere is in ‘the freaking middle of nowhere’ which is why King Edward couldn’t convince any English settlers to live there after he conquered Wales. Plus ‘it’s really, really windy.’
Potentially, that is all you need to know about Castell y Bere, but if that turned you away from visiting, that would be unfortunate. Historically, Castell y Bere was also one of the most important castles of the Welsh Princes–certainly it is one of the largest and most elaborate. It sits on elongated plateau of rock in the Upper Dysynni Valley. Because of its central location (at the time), it helped Llywelyn Fawr, who built it, control the territory along the old mountain road from Cadair Idris to Dolgellau. It also guards the territory between the Dyfi and Mawddach estuaries (see above mentioned ‘freaking middle of nowhere’). Llywelyn built it with luxuries in mind, and included stained glass windows, inlaid tile, and stone carvings (Paul Davis, Castles of the Welsh Princes).
Llywelyn Fawr began the castle after a dispute with his son, Gruffydd in 1221 AD. Llywelyn took these territories for himself, and began work on Castell y Bere. His grandson, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, added onto the structures, eventually creating a sprawling complex of buildings, surrounded by a system of walls and ditches that made the castle virtually impossible to assault. It was the last castle to be taken in 1283, after the fall of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, surrendering to King Edward’s forces without a fight.
King Edward maintained the castle (to the tune of 265 pounds) from 1286 to 1290, but Adrian Pettifer states in his book Welsh Castles, ‘the castle proved too remote to be supplied in times of siege.’ It was burned during Madog ap Llywelyn’s uprising in 1294 and never restored.
What does Bere mean?
Diolch
I have only found a definition in one place: https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~pbtyc/genealogy/Misc/Etymology.html
Either it comes from the Gaelic “Ber”, meaning point, or from another Gaelic word Blor, meaning well, water, fountain.
In Welsh, the modifier comes after the noun most of the time, and when a noun is modified by another noun, often you will have a ‘the’ as well, so the translation might be the Point Castle or the Well Castle.