Aberystwyth Castle

Listen first. Gulls call overhead, waves break on the rocks below, and the wind comes in hard off Cardigan Bay. Under your feet the grass is short and springy, and around you rise broken walls of dark grey stone. Some stand taller than a house. Others are little more than low ridges in the turf. This is Aberystwyth Castle, on a rocky headland at the edge of Wales, where the land runs out and the open sea begins.

The story of these walls starts in 1277. That year, King Edward I of England was at war with Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, the Prince of Wales. When the fighting ended, Edward began to build a ring of strong castles across Wales. They were meant to hold the country down. Aberystwyth was one of the first. Work began almost as soon as the war was over, and a new walled town grew up beside it.

The design was ambitious. This was a concentric castle, which means one ring of walls stood inside another. An attacker who broke through the outer wall found himself trapped in a narrow space, facing a second, higher wall. The whole plan had an unusual shape, something like a diamond or a lozenge, which follows the line of the headland. Look at how the ruins sit on the ground, and you can still trace that shape in the low walls around you.

Here is the first surprise. The castle was built for war, and war came quickly. In 1282, before the work was even finished, the Welsh rose up again. They attacked the half-built castle, took it, and burned parts of it. Edward's builders had to return and start again. So the stones you see were raised twice, by men who knew that the people outside the walls did not want them here.

The castle's most famous moment came over a century later. In the early fifteenth century, Owain Glyndŵr led a great Welsh rebellion against English rule. Glyndŵr is still a national hero in Wales. In 1404, his forces captured Aberystwyth Castle. For several years it was in Welsh hands, part of his effort to build an independent Welsh state. It was one of his strongest bases on this coast.

The English did not give up. A young Prince Henry, who would later become King Henry V, led the campaign to take it back. He brought cannon to the siege, which was still a new weapon of war at the time. In 1408 the castle fell to the English again. Think about that as you look at the thickness of these walls. They were built for arrows and siege towers, and they had to face a new age of gunpowder.

Now for the second surprise, and it is perhaps the strangest chapter of all. In the seventeenth century, this old fortress became a mint. In 1637, a royal mint was set up inside the castle. It made silver coins from metal dug out of the lead and silver mines in the hills of Cardiganshire, just inland from here. For a short time, money for the king was struck within these walls, close to the sound of the sea.

Then came the English Civil War, the conflict between King Charles I and Parliament. The castle was held for the king. In 1646 the Royalist garrison surrendered. A few years later, Parliament ordered the castle to be slighted. That means it was deliberately damaged so that no one could ever use it as a fortress again. Much of the ruin you walk through today comes from that act of destruction, not from time alone.

The sea has also played its part. Look closely at the stone. It is a local grey rock that breaks into flat, layered pieces, and it does not stand up well to wind and salt. Over the centuries, storms and rain have worn the walls down. Some sections have been repaired to keep them from falling further. As you walk, notice where the old rough stone meets newer, neater work.

The castle grounds hold more than medieval ruins. Near the walls stands the town's war memorial, a tall monument topped by a winged figure. It remembers the people of Aberystwyth who died in the wars of the twentieth century. Nearby you may also find a circle of standing stones. These are Gorsedd stones, set up for the National Eisteddfod, the great Welsh festival of poetry, music and culture. They are modern, not ancient, but they tie this place to the living Welsh language.

Turn around and look back toward the town. Close to the castle, along the seafront, stands a large building with towers and pointed windows. This is the Old College, an early home of the university in Aberystwyth. Beyond it, the promenade curves along the bay, lined with tall painted houses. On a clear day, you can follow the coast north and south, and see the hills of mid Wales rising behind the town.

If you visit on a winter evening, stay for a while near the pier. At dusk, large flocks of starlings gather over the sea. They swirl in dark, shifting clouds before they settle for the night under the pier. Locals and visitors line the seafront to watch. And on many evenings, in any season, the sun sets directly over Cardigan Bay, turning the water gold behind the castle walls.

Take a last look around you. The stones under your hand were placed by a king's builders, burned by Welsh rebels, retaken by a future king, used to strike silver coins, and broken on purpose after a civil war. Now children run across the grass, and people sit on the walls to eat their lunch. As you walk away, listen again. The gulls, the wind, and the sea have been here through every one of those chapters.