Castell Dinas Bran

The most reliable sources state that Gruffydd Maelor II, son of Madog ap Gruffydd Maelor I, began the castle in the late 1260's. The elder Madog founded nearby Valle Crucis Abbey, where both men were buried. Some references offer an earlier date for the castle, placing it in the 1230's, when Madog would have been alive and, therefore, its builder. Regardless of whom actually erected the buildings that now survive in ruin, they were part of the last building effort at Dinas Bran. Incredibly, assuming the later date to be most accurate, the Welsh princes only occupied the site for two decades. During those final two decades, the castle on the hilltop became a prized possession of the princes of Powys Fadog. Dinas Bran's power did not go unnoticed by English forces. In 1277, during Edward I's initial foray into Wales, the Earl of Lincoln, Henry de Lacy, besieged the castle. The Welsh lord of Dinas Bran was forced to submit to the invading army, which promptly set the site afire, completely destroying it. Taken in Wales by tedesco57