Castell Du (), also known as Sennybridge Castle or Castell Rhyd-y-Briw, is located approximately eight miles west of

Brecon Brecon (; cy, Aberhonddu; ), archaically known as Brecknock, is a market town in Powys, mid Wales. In 1841, it had a population of 5,701. The population in 2001 was 7,901, increasing to 8,250 at the 2011 census. Historically it was the coun ...

Powys Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. Geog ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, and is believed to be the work of

Llywelyn ap Gruffudd Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (c. 1223 – 11 December 1282), sometimes written as Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, also known as Llywelyn the Last ( cy, Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf, lit=Llywelyn, Our Last Leader), was the native Prince of Wales ( la, Princeps Wall ...

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

. Its history is largely obscure, but a reference to a castle at Rhyd-y-Briw in a document of 1271 is believed to refer to the fortification, and it is not unreasonable to assume that work commenced on it during Llywelyn's triumphal years in the 1260s. Its life would seem to have been short, as there is no further reference to it in thirteenth-century documents, and it seems likely that it was captured by the forces of

Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vas ...

during the war of 1276–77 and subsequently abandoned. Much of the site remains to be excavated; the remains of a D-shaped tower are visible, and two other towers may lie under pill-boxes erected during the Second World War.

Sources

* Huw Pryce (ed.), ''The Acts of Welsh Rulers 1120–1283'' (Cardiff, 2005).

External links

Entry at Coflein

Sources

External links

See also