30.04.25 Castell Dolforwyn (SO 151 950)
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| Castell Dolforwyn (SO 151 950) |
With the weather set
fine, my cousin Lynn, wanted to visit Castell Dolforwyn. We’d spoken about the castle on a number of
occasions over recent years, but up until now had not fixed a date to
visit. It was going to be a family
outing as we had mentioned this to another cousin; Thelma, and she also wanted
to visit.
It proved an extremely
warm day and especially so during the afternoon. We set off walking at 2.00pm from the small
car park directly east of the summit. It’s
only a short walk from here to the remains of the castle, but today with the
heat of the afternoon it was going to be a slow plod to the top.
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| Information board giving detail of the castle's construction |
Llywelyn ap Gruffydd built
the castle in 1273 on the Welsh side of the Afon Hafren (River Severn), with
Montgomery castle a few miles away on the English side of the river, with this
being part of the lordships associated with the English crown.
Its occupation by
Llywelyn was short lived, as defiance toward the English crown resulted in a
siege, with its surrender in 1277. Afterward
it was occupied and reinforced by Marcher Lord Roger Mortimer, before falling
in to disrepair and abandonment in the 14th century. Today it stands on a quiet Welsh hill top
looking out toward border country.
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| Information board giving detail of the later renervation |
On my previous visit I
had Trimbled the summit, therefore today was purely set aside for an afternoon
with my cousins, with good conversation and lots of laughs. A steep track leads from the car park toward
a gate and an earthen track beyond, thankfully the majority of which was in shade. The dappled light and increasing warmth gave
a Mediterranean feel to the whole walk.
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| The path leading to the old entrance gate |
Reaching the outer
perimeter of the castle a grassed bank leads through what was once the gateway
entrance, to the remaining walls and enclosed rooms within. Today we had the castle to ourselves for the
majority of our visit, with the only other visitors being a mother and her two
young children, who were on holiday from Belgium exploring Wales for the week
in a large camper van. They had visited
the Gower, Pembrokeshire, Anglesey, Yr Wyddfa and were heading down to Brecon before
flying home from Bristol tomorrow morning.
They had certainly picked a glorious week to visit.
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| Thelma beside the wall |
Having roamed the
interior of the castle we did a loop of the exterior walls before heading back
inside the castle remains, where we found a suitable place to sit and relax in
shade away from what was proving a quite ferocious sun. We remained here for about 20 minutes,
cooling down and chatting.
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| Lynn admiring the view |
All that remained was a
steady walk back down our inward route to the awaiting car, where I changed
from walking boots to sandals before driving the short distance back to
Welshpool.
Survey Result:
Castell
Dolforwyn (significant name change)
Summit Height: 228.5m (converted to OSGM15, previous Trimble
GeoXH 6000 survey) (significant height revision)
Summit Grid Reference: SO 15189 95016 (previous Trimble GeoXH 6000
survey)
Bwlch Height: 188.1m (LIDAR)
Bwlch Grid Reference: SO 14988 95278 (LIDAR)
Drop: 40.4m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch)
Dominance: 17.68% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
bwlch)
For details on the summit survey of Castell Dolforwyn
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet
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