Qualla: Newcastle Emlyn Castle

Newcastle Emlyn Castle: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Downer, CC BY-SA 2.0. Sixty oxen. That was the count of beasts required to haul a single siege engine up the Teifi valley to the gates of Newcastle Emlyn in the summer of 1287. Forty had been enough to drag it from Dryslwyn to Cardigan; the climb into the hills above the river demanded twenty more. Somewhere on the curtain wall, on a narrow promontory looped almost completely by the river, Rhys ap Maredudd watched the slow approach of his own end. His father had built this castle, in stone, out of stone, when most Welsh lords still made do with timber. Now the English king's men were dragging stones of a different sort to break it down.

Read more: Newcastle Emlyn Castle on Qualla

Image: Chris Downer | CC BY-SA 2.0

Newcastle Emlyn Castle: A Welsh Stone Castle

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Christopher Hilton, CC BY-SA 2.0. Maredudd ap Rhys raised the castle around 1240, on a tongue of land that the Teifi all but encircles. Approachable only from the west, the site was a defender's dream: water on three flanks, a single narrow neck to fortify. What makes Newcastle Emlyn unusual is not the geography ...

Read more: Newcastle Emlyn Castle on Qualla

Image: Christopher Hilton | CC BY-SA 2.0

Newcastle Emlyn Castle: The Revolt of Rhys ap Maredudd

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Downer, CC BY-SA 2.0. By 1287, Maredudd was long dead and his son Rhys ap Maredudd had taken up the family quarrel with the English crown. The Welsh wars of Edward I were over in name but their grievances were not. When Rhys rebelled, the king's forces drove him from his main stronghold at Dryslwyn an...

Read more: Newcastle Emlyn Castle on Qualla

Image: Chris Downer | CC BY-SA 2.0

Newcastle Emlyn Castle: The Black Prince's Long Quiet

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jeffpmcdonald, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1343, Edward of Woodstock, soon to be called the Black Prince, was made Prince of Wales. With the title came a portfolio of twenty-six castles spread across his new principality, and Newcastle Emlyn was one of them. Under his ownership the place enjoyed something it had rarely...

Read more: Newcastle Emlyn Castle on Qualla

Image: Jeffpmcdonald | CC BY-SA 4.0

Newcastle Emlyn Castle: What Remains, and What Was Lost

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bjenks, CC BY-SA 3.0. The English Civil War found the castle still standing and still useful. In 1645 it was besieged by Parliamentary troops, and changed hands several times before the fighting moved on. Whatever the seventeenth century left behind was further dismantled or reclaimed by the river val...

Read more: Newcastle Emlyn Castle on Qualla

Image: Bjenks | CC BY-SA 3.0