We took a day off from the path
today to visit Carew Castle followed by Pembroke Castle. I found Carew Castle
utterly fascinating, or possibly it was the stories associated with the castle
that captured my imagination.
The ruins of Carew Castle stand on the low banks of the River Carew, near Pembroke. Gerald
of Windsor erected a Norman motte and bailey castle here about 1100, building
on a still earlier Iron Age fort. Gerald was a Norman lord, one of
the influx of Normans into south Wales in the decades following the Battle of
Hastings. Gerald gained the manor at Carew as a dowry gift when he married
Nest, a legendary Welsh beauty. Marrying such a beautiful woman did have its
drawbacks, however.
A local Welshman named Owain ap
Cadwgan, son of a local prince, fell in love with Nest. In 1109 he scaled the
walls of Gerald's timber fort and captured Nest. Gerald was not a man to let
this insult pass, and he pursued Owain for 6 years.
Eventually he killed Owain in battle
and recaptured Nest along with the two children she had born in her time with
Owain. But Gerald died in 1116 and Nest remarried shortly after, to Stephen,
the castellan of Cardigan. Nest's story has gone down in Welsh lore, and even
after the passage of 900 years she is still regarded as 'the most beautiful
woman in Wales', a sort of Welsh Helen of Troy.
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The modern entrance to the castle.
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| Sir John Perrot's North Range at Carew Castle viewed from across the mill pond. |
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| View of the Western Range, Carew |
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| Kitchen, Carew |
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Interior view of Perrot's north range at Carew
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Interior view of Perrot's north range at Carew
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Perrot's north range from the outer ward
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| Carew Tidal Mill |
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| Cogs inside mill house, Carew |
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| Grinding stones, Mill House, Carew |
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| Gatehouse, Pembroke Castle |
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| View over Pembroke town |
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| Row of 16th Century cottages |
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| Natural cavern known as The Wogan under the castle |
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| Castle battlements, Pembroke |
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