Montgomery Castle

Henry III ordered this castle in 1223 and Hubert de Burgh oversaw it. It went up on a narrow rock spur about a mile from the earlier timber castle at Hen Domen, which Llywelyn ab Iorwerth had made untenable.

The site is the point. A long thin ridge with steep drops on both sides, defended in depth by a series of ditches cut across it, so that an attacker had to take the outer ward, then the middle, then the inner. That sequence is still perfectly legible on the ground and it is the best thing about the visit.

The treaty

On 29 September 1267 Henry III concluded here the treaty that recognised Llywelyn ap Gruffudd as Prince of Wales, with the homage of the other Welsh lords owed to him rather than to the crown. Llywelyn owed fealty and 6,000 marks.

It was the high point of an independent Wales and it lasted fifteen years. In 1282 the garrison of this castle rode out towards the Wye in the campaign that ended with Llywelyn dead near Builth in December.

The castle was attacked by Llywelyn ab Iorwerth in 1228 and 1231, and by Dafydd ap Llywelyn in 1245. Glyndŵr's forces reached the town in the early 1400s.

The end

The Herberts held it and built a comfortable brick mansion in the outer ward in the 1620s, which tells you the castle had stopped being a serious military proposition.

Then it became one again. Powis and Montgomery were both taken by parliament in 1644, and after one of the largest battles fought in Wales was decided in the fields below, the castle was garrisoned. In 1649 parliament ordered it slighted so that it could never be held.

They were thorough. What survives is fragmentary walling, the well, the ditches and the outline of the twin-towered gatehouse. The brick mansion was demolished at the same time and its foundations were excavated in the 1960s.

Visiting

Cadw, free, open access, with a car park just below and a short steep walk up. There is no ticket office and no facilities.

Go for the earthworks and the position rather than for standing masonry. From the top you can see Hen Domen, the Severn, Offa's Dyke and a long way into Shropshire, which explains the whole of Montgomery's history in one look.