Towering high above Llangollen stands Castell Dinas Brân (known to the local population as Crow Castle). Rich in history, the site was originally occupied by one of the many Iron Age hill-forts found in the Dee Valley. Two thousand years after the Iron Age, the site was chosen for its defensive value and its imposing nature by Gruffydd ap Madog, ruler of Powys Fadog (Northern Powys) between about 1236 and 1270.
It is possible that an earlier timber castle existed on the site, maybe even dating back to the Norman conquest of Wales, but there is no evidence for this.
During the 13th Century there was much dispute between the Welsh Princes and the English Kings, culminating in the conquest by Edward I. When the English commander Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, led an expedition against Dinas Brân in May 1277, the Welsh defenders deliberately set fire to the castle in order to prevent it falling into English hands.
Letter from Henry de Lacey to Edward I concerning Dinas Brân. Courtesy of The National Archives
The fortress is “still so good and strong and should be repaired and garrisoned by the English. For there is no stronger castle in all Wales, nor has England a stronger”.
Although the wooden buildings within the castle walls were destroyed the “tower” or keep and all of the stone walls remained intact. Eventually, having defeated the Welsh, Edward presented the castle to his general John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey. However, deciding it’s location too inaccessible and too remote, de Warenne abandoned Castell Dinas Brân and went on to build and live in Holt Castle.
Abandoned and left to the elements, the castle weathered away for centuries, with people giving it little attention. The introduction of the railway to Llangollen in the second half of the nineteenth century, however, created an influx of tourists to the town. The castle, and the climb to it, became one of the main attractions. Seeing potential, the locals created a small business by renting out donkeys to those daunted by the steep climb. In the 1880s Mr Samuel Jones built a small ‘cottage’ on the top from which he sold supplies to visitors. The little shop was taken over in the early 1900s by Miss Elizabeth Roberts and she also installed a camera obscura to entice visitors to take advantage of the views of the surrounding valley.
