dcf.cymru stimulus sheet · History · Year 7
The facts on these cards come from heritage websites such as Cadw. Dates marked “about” are the best estimate historians have. Use the card number when you plot the castle on your timeline.
Print one sheet per pair. Pupils can cut the twelve cards apart to sort them, or leave the sheet whole and work down it. No computers needed. The same dates are in castles-of-wales.csv for a computer room.
Begun: 1067 · Built by: William fitz Osbern, a Norman earl and close friend of William the Conqueror · Where: Monmouthshire, above the River Wye
One of the first Norman strongholds in Wales. For more than six centuries it was home to some of the richest and most powerful men in the country.
Begun: about 1081 · Built by: the Normans · Where: Cardiff, beside the River Taff
The Normans put up a wooden motte-and-bailey castle inside the walls of an old Roman fort. It was rebuilt in stone later, and in the 1800s the Marquess of Bute turned it into a fairytale mansion.
Begun: 1093 · Built by: Arnulf de Montgomery, a Norman lord · Where: Pembrokeshire
Henry Tudor was born here in 1457. He became King Henry VII of England in 1485, the first of the Tudor kings.
Begun: about 1210 · Built by: Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn the Great), ruler of Gwynedd from 1201 to 1240 · Where: Eryri (Snowdonia)
One of a group of castles built to command the mountain passes. Edward I captured it in 1283.
Begun: 1221 · Built by: Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn the Great) · Where: Gwynedd, below Cadair Idris
Built to protect the southern border of Gwynedd. It stayed in use until 1294.
Begun: about 1230 · Built by: Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn the Great); his grandson Llywelyn ap Gruffudd added more towers · Where: on a rocky headland on the coast of Cardigan Bay
Edward I took it over. In 1404 Owain Glyndŵr captured it and burned it.
Begun: 1268 · Built by: Gilbert de Clare, a Marcher lord from a Norman family · Where: north of Cardiff
The biggest castle in Wales, and second only to Windsor in the whole of Britain. De Clare built it to stop Llywelyn ap Gruffudd pushing south.
Begun: 1277 · Built by: King Edward I · Where: on the Dee estuary, north-east Wales
The first castle of Edward's war against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. It was mostly finished by 1284.
Begun: 1283 · Built by: King Edward I and his architect, Master James of St George · Where: the mouth of the River Conwy
The castle and the town walls were built in about four years, 1283 to 1287. Part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Begun: 1283 · Built by: King Edward I and Master James of St George · Where: the mouth of the River Seiont
The whole project took 47 years and cost £25,000 — a staggering sum then. Its many-sided towers and bands of coloured stone copied the walls of Constantinople. Part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Begun: 1283 · Built by: King Edward I and Master James of St George · Where: on a rocky crag above the sand dunes, facing Cardigan Bay
Finished in just seven years. A path of 108 steps, the “Way from the Sea”, let ships bring food to the castle during a siege. Owain Glyndŵr captured it in 1404. Part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Begun: 1295 · Built by: King Edward I and Master James of St George · Where: Ynys Môn (Anglesey), beside the Menai Strait
Known as “the greatest castle never built”. The money ran out and work had petered out by the 1320s, so the towers never reached their full height. Part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.