Our Blog - Burry Port, Wales

Throughout Wales, you see Red Dragons .. whether it be on flags, toys, building decorations, or tourist souvenirs. The Red Dragon has been used as a symbol of unity by Welsh people for centuries. The flag of Wales has a red dragon on a background of white (top) and green (bottom). The white and green background represents the Tudors, as Henry VII fought at the head of his army against Richard III flying the Red Dragon in tribute to his Welsh ancestry.

We see these everywhere ... a Celtic Cross. These types of monuments first appeared in the 9th century and usually take the form of a ringed cross on a stepped or pyramidal base. This one we found as we started a walk one evening.

The Carew Castle & Tidal Mill is a Norman and Tudor fortress sitting on a 23-acre millpond. Excavations have revealed an Iron Age settlement, as well as with large quantities of Roman pottery. A Dark Age settlement or fort may also have existed on the site. But then at the end of the 11th century the Normans extended their conquest of England into Wales and Pembroke Castle (you'll see that next) became the center of Norman rule in this area. A new fortification was built on the Carew River, about ten miles up the tidal waterway from Pembroke. Much of what is left comes from the 14th century with improvements in the late 15th century. The final changes came in the 1500's when it was changed from a medieval fortress to an Elizabethan manor including the addition of a great northern range with huge windows overlooking the Millpond. It was abandoned in 1686. We couldn't actually go walk through it ... just walking around it on a path. In the last picture, you can clearly see the Northern addition with the huge windows that were added to move it from "fortress" to "manor".

Pembroke Castle is the largest privately-owned castle in Wales, and of all the castles we visited on this trip, this one was probably the most tourist-friendly. There has been a castle on this site since 1093 and what you see now comes from the 12th century when the castle was given to William Marshal and he rebuilt it in stone. Although it is a Norman-style enclosure castle with great keep, it can be more accurately described as a linear fortification because, like the later 13th-century castles at Caernarfon and Conwy, it was built on a rock promontory surrounded by water. This meant that attacking forces could only assault a narrow front. Architecturally, Pembroke's thickest walls and towers are all concentrated on its landward side facing the town with Pembroke River creating a natural defense around the rest of its perimeter. Here you can see how it even sits up on above the road and definitely has a fortress look.

This model gives a good view of what the castle would have appeared around 1130, when it was just a wooden castle. What makes this (in my opinion) a really great model is that you can see the cliffs and it is very obvious that the cliff-side of the castle doesn't have much defense compared to the other land-side, which has the taller exterior wall and the square gatehouse.

Next came the stone castle, which was rebuilt by William Marshal, and this is what it may have been like around 1240. You can see how the land-side is still better defended, and also the 13th Century round "keep" that was 80 feet tall with walls up to 20 feet thick at its base.

One of the main "claims to fame" for the castle is that King Henry VII (King from 1485-1509) was born in the castle in 1457. In 1447, the castle reverted to King Henry VI, who in 1454 transferred the castle to one of his two half-brothers, Jasper. A couple years later, the other half-brother died, leaving a pregnant widow (a very YOUNG one, only 13 or 14 at the time). Jasper brought her to the castle where she gave birth to a son who would then become Henry VII. He was the first Tudor monarch and came to the throne when he defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, bringing the Wars of the Roses to an end.

Here you can see the entry through the arched entry way. This entry was very well protected due to the shape. You have to go up a slope and enter through a narrow doorway, with soldiers shooting arrows at you from above. If you got past that door, you ended up in a tiny square courtyard (also with soldiers shooting arrows at you) and you had to then make a right turn to get to the next entry door. Both had doors or gates, and the right-turn made it almost impossible to use any type of a battering ram.

In addition to being largest privately-owned castle in Wales, it is also home to the largest map of Wales in the world, which is in the middle of the inner ward. It shows the location of every important castle and religious landmark in Wales and our tour guide used it to talk about some of the history of Wales and how the castle (as well as some nearby) factored into the history of the area.

Here you can see how think the land-side defensive walls are, and the walkway between the various towers that allowed the soldiers to patrol the perimeter of the castle.

Situated in the inner ward, the Dungeon Tower was built during the 13th century. It is built as an "oubliette" (from the French word 'oublier' which means 'to forget'), which is a secret dungeon with access only through a trapdoor in its ceiling. Prisoners would basically be tossed down into the dungeon through this trap door and "forgotten". As you can imagine, it is a terrible place to be and the lack of food, clothing, and light in the dungeon caused people to go blind and suffer a number of incurable ailments.

The keep is unique in Great Britain for its size but also for the domed stone roof. It was meant to be the stronghold if the castle were ever attacked. The original entrance would have been on the first floor with just a set of wooden steps to enter. In the event of an attack, the stairs could be destroyed after everyone was inside so that the attackers couldn't get in. Mind you, it also means that supplies also can't get in, so once you ran out of food and water, well, you can imagine! People found that these types of strongholds weren't that great as the attackers realized this and just laid siege to the castle and, literally, waited them out. You can see the entrance in the 2nd picture, but now there are stone stairs built to allow the tourists inside.

We climbed to the top so that we could get good views of the castle and surrounding area.

I think these are what remains of the Great Hall and private apartments that were built in the late 13th century.

Tenby Golf Club was established in 1888 although people say that there were golf enthusiasts knocking balls around the links and sand dunes by at least 1875 making it the birthplace of Welsh golf. As with the other courses, it was really, really brown, making shot selection a bit difficult. We just aren't used to the having to hit your approach to 50 yards before the green and hoping it won't roll too far and go off the back of the green. But you can get great views of the beach and water from a bunch of the holes.

Continue to Day 12: Gower Peninsula or go back to the main Wales vacation blog page