English castles tended to be built as centres of administration and to control the land surrounding them. The Welsh castles are rather different in character.

They tended to be built on rocky outcrops to control routes through the mountain passes and to secure the borders of kingdoms like Gwynedd.

Welsh castles also have different features; they generally don't have towers more than two storeys high or substantial curtain walls with towers spaced along them for defence. They're also more likely to have apsidal, or D-shaped towers, some of which are quite large.

Prince Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, or Llywelyn the Great, certainly didn't have anything like the resources of the English kings. He didn't have the tradition of building in stone either.

So building all his castles was quite an achievement on his part; the hewing, cutting and transportation of the stones must have been quite a feat of engineering in itself.

Records of the construction and use of Edward I's castles were preserved and are still available today, but little documentation on Llywelyn's castles remains. We know very little about how they were used, but we can assume that they were symbols of power and influence over the kingdom of Gwynedd.

Take a tour of Llywelyn's castles, with commentary from Peter.
Castell y Bere
Dolwyddelan Castle
Criccieth Castle
Dolbadarn Castle