A Short history of Cardigan
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Origins of the Town and Castle
A Norman castle was built in wood by Gilbert de Clare in 1110. Over the next hundred years the Welsh and the Normans fought over control of the castle. In 1165 Rhys ap Gruffydd or Lord Rhys, the ruler of the kingdom of Deheubarth, lead the battle of Crugmawr and defeated the Normans. He won the castle from de Clare’s son and then rebuilt it in stone and mortar.
Lord Rhys hosted the first National Eisteddfod in Cardigan during 1176, as a celebration of the completion of the castle. Following his death the castle was again controlled by the Normans until it was attacked by Llewellyn the Great. The castle subsequently passed to the Normans, and then to the Welsh again with a final Norman conquest in the 1240s, when the castle was again re-constructed. The ruins of the castle are visible today as two towers and a new keep. The stone town wall was built in 1244.
Towards the end of the thirteenth century King Edward 1st claimed Cardigan Castle and there was a time of peace for a few hundred years. Oliver Cromwell attacked the castle during the English Civil War in 1645. The castle was badly damaged and it remained uninhabited until the nineteenth century.
In 1808 John Bowen built a Georgian country house within the wall of Cardigan Castle, on top of the foundations of the keep, and making use of a thirteenth century round tower. Further alterations were made by Arthur Jones, the High Sheriff in 1827.
In 2001 the Cadwgan Building Preservation Trust (see www.cardigancastle.com) was set up with the aim of preservation and restoration of Cardigan Castle and its associated buildings. The bid for restoration was a finalist in the BBC’s ‘Restoration’ programme that is presented by Griff Rhys Jones.