History
The first small timber castle was built by Gerald de Windsor, steward of Pembroke and owner of Carew Castle, around the turn of the first and second decades of the 12th century, on lands seized from the Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth by the Anglo-Normans. It is known that in 1108 he erected a small castle called Cernarth Bychan, sometimes identified with Cilgerran. A year later, the structure was captured by the Welsh prince Owain ap Cadwgan of Powys, who in the process kidnapped Nest, Gerald’s wife, while he was forced to make a dishonorable escape through a latrine drain. It is likely that after Owain’s withdrawal, Gerald returned to Cernarth Bychan, but the name ceased to appear in later historical records.
The first certain mention of the partially stone castle was recorded in connection with its capture by the Welsh under Rhys ap Gruffydd in 1165. The following year, the Anglo-Normans attempted to retake the castle twice, but suffered heavy losses and were forced to retreat. In 1172, King Henry II concluded an agreement with Rhys that normalized the political situation and led to a temporary cessation of hostilities. Rhys ap Gruffydd’s death in 1197 weakened Deheubarth, which was torn apart by dynastic struggles led by his heirs. This allowed the Anglo-Normans to recapture Cilgerran in 1204, when William Marshal, the first Earl of Pembroke, expelled Rhys’s son, Maelgwn ap Rhys. Marshal attempted repairs, but these proved ineffective, as the castle was captured by Llywelyn the Great, after a day-long battle in 1215. Only Marshal’s eldest son, also named William, finally regained the castle, arriving with a large force from Ireland in 1223. To protect against further Welsh raids, William began a thorough reconstruction of the castle. Cilgerran was never again captured by the Welsh, although in 1258, when English forces were defeated nearby, the castle had to repel the princes of Deheubarth.
The death of Anselm Marshal, sixth Earl of Pembroke, in 1245 resulted in the castle passing through marriage to the de Cantilupe family. Another change of ownership occurred in 1273. After the Cantilupe family died out, Cilgerran passed to the Hastings family, although due to the minority of its members, King Edward I officially held the castle. Frequent changes of ownership and the absence of an adult owner caused the castle’s buildings to decline. A survey conducted in 1275 by the royal bailiff revealed, that during Nicholas fitz Martin’s recent custody of the castle, damages to towers, houses, and other buildings had been caused, valued at a considerable sum of 100 marks. Two years later, during the First War of Welsh Independence, Cilgerran was avoided by the fighting armies, either due to loss of importance or simple luck.
In the first half of the 14th century, the castle was in poor condition, even described as near ruin, and its estates generated no income. The situation changed somewhat in the second half of the 14th century due to the Anglo-French War and the expedition of John de Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, and Lord of Cilgerran to Aquitaine. The expedition was defeated off the coast of La Rochelle, raising fears of a French retaliatory attack. For this reason, in 1377, Edward III ordered repairs to the castle, although ultimately the invasion of Cilgerran did not take place. The English king was then once again the guardian of the minor Hastings family.
In 1389, John de Hastings, the last member of the Cilgerran family died. The castle, now under the care of the English Crown, underwent minor, perhaps most necessary repairs the following year. These repairs continued until the early 15th century, when castle was captured by rebels during Owain Glyndŵr’s Welsh rebellion and likely damaged during the fighting. From that point on, records of Cilgerran appeared infrequently, primarily in connection with the earldom of Pembroke, which was granted in the 15th century to the principal supporters of the English rulers (Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester from 1414 to 1447, and Jasper Tudor from 1452 to 1461 and from 1485 to 1495). The castle itself was probably finally abandoned at that time. There is no record of its use during either the Wars of the Roses or the 17th-century civil war.
Architecture
The castle was built on a rocky promontory above the River Teifi, with its eastern and northern sides directly adjacent to a steep slopes descending to riverbed. The deep valley through which the river flowed, made the castle practically inaccessible from its side. The northwestern slopes also descended steeply towards the Plysgog stream, which flowed swiftly into the Teifi at the foot of the hill on the northern side of Cilgerran. The most accessible approach was from the south and southwest, where an outer bailey was established. In front of it, along the road, an unfortified settlement developed, with the main street widening in the center to form a market square and then branching off into a road leading to the castle and to the parish church.
The exact appearance of the first structure from the 12th century is unknown, but it likely had the form of a wood and earth defensive ringwork, taking advantage of the natural terrain and secured to the south by a transverse ditch, over which a wooden bridge was built (this dry moat, separating the promontory from the rest of the plateau, also formed the foundation upon which the later expansion of the castle was based). The most heavily fortified point was probably the gatehouse, perhaps tower-like shaped, situated on flat, rocky ground on the southwest side. It is likely that as early as the 12th century, the original palisade was reinforced or rebuilt using stones bound with clay mortar, discovered near the entrance gate and on the northern edge of the hill.
A thorough replacement of the timber fortifications with stone wall took place from around 1223, after the castle was reclaimed by William Marshall’s son. It likely resembled a shield wall, situated just beyond the ditch, on the most vulnerable southern side. The castle was less fortified on the river side, as the high slopes provided good protection there. The castle’s shape resembled the early stages of Pembroke Castle, built by William Marshall twenty years earlier. In both strongholds, the entrance to the promontory was cut off by the ditch, and it was located in a gatehouse located on the far left, likely to hinder the use of shields by potential attackers.
Around the 1223 , a massive cylindrical tower with an internal diameter of 6.4 meters was erected in the eastern corner of the perimeter of the walls. Thanks to large rooms equipped with fireplace and relatively good lighting, it could perform residential functions. After the death of William Marshal the younger, one of his brothers (perhaps earl Gilbert before 1241) erected a new quadrilateral gatehouse and a second, western, also cylindrical tower of similar dimensions as the eastern one (outer diameter 11.8 meters), but significantly extended beyond the perimeter of the walls towards the ditch. This rather unusual arrangement of two massive towers with donjon functions may have been caused by the large distance from the gate to the eastern tower and difficult flanking due to the bent of the central part of the southern curtain wall.
The cylindrical eastern tower had three floors above the ground floor. Since it was built first, it initially served as a keep, although it was unusual to enter it from ground level. The explanation for this was the fact that the ground floor of the tower was not connected to the first floor or accessible only by a ladder. Internal communication between the upper floors in the eastern tower was provided by a spiral staircase to which a separate entrance portal led straight from the courtyard. Perhaps at the top of the tower it turned into an observation turret. Only one fireplace was installed in the tower’s highest chamber. From the south side it had only arrowslits, but from the courtyard side there were already larger two-light windows illuminating the interior. From the level of the second floor you could get to the crown of the defensive wall, which on the northern side ended in the form of a spur with a pair of chutes functioning as latrines. Next to the tower on the south side there was a small wicket protected by a portcullis, which led to a ditch and further to the postern gate in the outer wall.
The western tower originally only had an entrance from the first floor level, accessible through a wooden, external staircase in the form of a roofed vestibule just before the entrance portal. Originally, the ground floor was only accessible through the ceiling hatch and illuminated by a small slit opening. In the fourteenth century, in order to facilitate communication, the portal at the courtyard level was pierced and the lower floor of the tower was divided by a partition wall. Stone stairs in the thickness of the wall began to lead to the tower first floor. The first and second floors, also accessible through staircases, were equipped with fireplaces and single-light windows from the courtyard side. The window was also pierced on the third floor, but the room did not have a fireplace. From the level of the second floor, the passage with arrowslits led in the thickness of the defensive wall to the gatehouse. Another wall-walk led to the gatehouse in the crown of the defensive wall from the third floor of the western tower.
The new thirteenth-century gatehouse was moved a little further west compared to the older one. It had two floors above the ground floor, a drawbridge and two portcullises. A defensive wall connected it and was flanked by a round western tower. On the first floor in the vaulted room, probably a chapel was placed, because there was a piscina or a sink for washing dishes used during mass. The portcullis would then have to be lifted inside the chapel, but other such examples are known, e.g. at Caernarfon Castle or at the Marten Tower of Chepstow Castle. The top of the gatehouse was in the form of a breastwork with a battlement based on protruding corbels.
In the fourteenth century, the inner courtyard buildings were concentrated at the north-west and north-east curtain. After passing the gate to the left there was a place where mortar for construction was made, and then the kitchen building was located. The northern corner of the castle was occupied by a polygonal tower, probably residential, protruding beyond the perimeter of the walls. The castle from the side of the river closed the defensive wall, at which height about 3 meters was a wall-walk for defenders. A small postern gate was pierced in the wall for escape or descent to the Plysgog valley.
The outer bailey in the south was separated from the upper ward by a ditch. Its fortifications consisted of an external ditch and a defensive wall with a gatehouse on the south side of dimension 8 x 5 meters with a passage and a small room of the guards in the ground floor. This small building was probably closed only by wooden door and a drawbridge and belonged to the earlier phase of the castle. At a later stage, probably in the 13th century, it was replaced by a new gatehouse located in the western corner of the outer bailey. Its protection was more sophisticated, in addition to the drawbridge it was also closed by a portcullis. An additional buildings of the outer bailey was a pair of houses, probably of economic purpose. The eastern one had a rectangular shape and was divided in the ground floor into three rooms, one of which had an oven. The upper part of the building was probably half-timbered.
Current state
The castle is today a ruin, with its best-preserved elements being two large cylindrical towers from the 13th century, the adjacent sections of the defensive wall, and the inner section of the main gatehouse. Numerous original arrowslits, two-light windows facing the courtyard, and entrances from the 13th and 14th centuries can be seen in the cylindrical towers. Of the remaining castle elements, only the ground-level sections, reaching several meters in height in their highest fragments are preserved (e.g., the southern wall of the 14th-century northern tower). At the eastern end of the northern section of the defensive wall, attention can be drawn to the latrines set just above the escarpment, while from the outer bailey, a postern situated at the edge of the ditch, can be seen. The castle is under the care of the government organization Cadw and is open to the public free of charge.
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