Trefilan Castle

Trefilan Castle stands beside the parish church in the small village of Trefilan, Ceredigion. Built as a motte-and-bailey fortress, it was begun in the late 1220s by Maelgwn ap Rhys and finished around 1233 by his son Maelgwn Fychan. The site once served as the residence of the Welsh lords of Is Aeron. During Edward I’s second Welsh campaign in September 1282, an English force captured the castle, freed eighteen prisoners, and drove off three thousand cattle. Gruffydd and Cynan ap Maredudd barely escaped, and the stronghold was burned and never rebuilt. Today only the great earthen mound remains. The oval mound rises about five and a half metres high and measures roughly fifteen by twelve metres at its summit. A wooden palisade crowned the summit, and a wet moat once surrounded the base. To the south-west lay the much larger bailey, measuring eighty-seven by one hundred and twenty-three metres, though only faint earthworks survive. Visitors can walk around the mound and view the churchyard next to it. The church itself dates from later centuries, adding a quiet contrast to the ruined fortress. A low wooden fence marks the protected edges of the mound. From the top there are wide views over the surrounding countryside. The site is open to the public and offers a clear picture of a once important Welsh stronghold.