Ystrad Peithyll

Ystrad Peithyll stands on a low mound beside the River Peithyll, near Penrhyn-coch in northern Ceredigion. The remains belong to a small motte-and-bailey castle built in the 12th century after the Norman conquest. A wide ditch surrounds the mound, which rises about three and a half metres above the ground. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales has noted traces of a counterscarp on the lower slopes. The site is listed in the Brut y Tywysogion, a medieval chronicle of Welsh princes. The castle was one of several Norman strongholds attacked during Gruffydd ap Rhys’s rebellion in the early 12th century. It was defended by Razo, a steward acting for Gilbert Fitz Richard, who had been granted the Lordship of Cardigan in 1110. Enemy forces surrounded the castle, set it alight and killed many of its defenders. Razo himself was absent at another castle when Ystrad Peithyll fell. Visitors find a grassy mound about twenty metres across, still ringed by a deep ditch. The slopes rise steeply to a flat summit where the timber defences once stood. The river flows nearby, and the surrounding fields stretch towards the hills of northern Ceredigion. The site is quiet, with only the wind and birds for company.