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Denbigh Castle overlooks the market town of Denbigh in north east Wales. It
is another of Edward I's chain of castles designed to keep the Welsh in check.
The name, Denbigh, comes from the Welsh word, "Dinbych", meaning
"little fort",
As with many castle sites, Denbigh was used by earlier rulers to safeguard
their domains. For example Dafydd ap Gruffydd, the brother of Llywelyn
the Last,Prince of Wales, had a stronghold at Denbigh, which he may have inherited
from his famous
ancestor, Llywelyn the Great . Llywelyn the Great met an abbot who journeyed
to Denbigh from a monastery in England for a meeting in 1230. The powerful Welsh
Princes of Gwynedd had a fortification here in 1282 when Edward I crushed
the Welsh with his mighty army.
The Welsh castle has been entirely erased after the English took the site.
Edward I then continued his castle building plan
The lordship and castle at Denbigh were given to Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln,
who established of the fortress we see today.
de Lacy probably used a design of Master James of St. George, the kings
castle architect. The castle was started around 1284, and progressed in
two phases - the first of rather insubstantial outer defences along the southern
and western
sides plus the erection of town walls. The gatehouse was strengthened and a
thicker, higher curtain wall were part of the second phase and were not finished
until the14th century.
The inner ward, which would have had the various halls, kitchens and apartments
is now ruined
At the south of the curtain walls, the town walls meet the castle walls. Here
a complex structure of deep pits and a sloping gateway added to the defence
of the castle
Beside this structure is "the Mantlet" which was a series of terraces
cut into the rock face, acting much like a moat to deter attack
Denbigh Castle withstood siege both during the Wars of the Roses and the English
Civil War. In 1646, the
Cromwellian army finally took the castle after a four month pounding by cannon
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Land of Castles - Wales