Birdoswald Roman Fort
Birdoswald is the most well-preserved of any of the 16 forts along Hadrian’s Wall. The wall here was begun in turf around 122 AD, some of which is still visible today. Then, starting in the 130s, the wall was rebuilt in stone 50 meters to the north. Today the wall at Birdoswald is the longest surviving contiguous portion of Hadrian’s wall. In addition to the turf wall and later stone wall, visible remains at Birdoswald also include the headquarters building, granaries, barracks, and the only exercise and drill hall found in a Roman auxiliary fort. Birdoswald was occupied from 122 until approximately 400 AD, primarily by soldiers from Dacia, now modern day Romania. The Roman policy was to recruit soldiers from people they’d conquered and then send them to faraway places. In so doing, they severed the soldiers’ connection with Read more…
Ewloe Castle
Very little is known about Ewloe Castle, other than it appears to have been built by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd to counter the English fortresses in eastern Gwynedd of Hawarden and Flint. It was built in a hollow beneath a field, that actually set on a small hill overlooking two creeks: the Wepre and the New Inn Brook. “Ewloe castle rises at northwest of the town of Hawarden and is one of the symbols of the brief triumph of the Welsh prince Llywelyn the Last that began its construction in 1257 after the reconquest of this part of Wales. Of all the native castles in North Wales Ewloe is the only with a non spectacular setting. It stands on a promontory overlooking the junction of two streams but is overwhelmed by higher ground at south. Its position, near the English border, Read more…
Carreg Cennen Castle
The present castle at Carreg Cennen dates to the thirteenth century and Edward the first’s program of castle building. The site itself, however, has been occupied since Roman times (a cache of Roman coins and four prehistoric skeletons have been unearthed at the site). The first to build a castle here were the Welsh princes of Deheubarth. “The first mention of a medieval castle is in 1248 when Rhys Fychan regained control after his mother had handed the castle over to the English out of hatred for her son. Nothing remains of this earlier castle, the current buildings date back to the late 13th and early 14th centuries. In 1277 Edward I seized control of the castle, and in 1283 he gave it to one of his barons, John Giffard of Brimpsfield in Gloucestershire. It was probably during Giffard’s tenure Read more…
The Roman Fort of Caerleon (and King Arthur’s Camelot?)
According to Geoffrey of Monmouth, Caerleon, a word derived from the Welsh ‘fortress of the legion’, was the seat from which King Arthur ruled Britain. He wrote: http://www.caerleon.net/history/arthur/page7.htm “When the feast of Whitsuntide began to draw near, Arthur, who was quite overjoyed by his great success, made up his mind to hold a plenary court at that season and place the crown of the kingdom on his head. He decided too, to summon to this feast the leaders who owed him homage, so that he could celebrate Whitsun with greater reverence and renew the closest pacts of peace with his chieftains. He explained to the members of his court what he was proposing to do and accepted their advice that he should carry out his plan in The City Of The Legions. Situated as it is in Morgannwg (Glamorgan), on Read more…
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