The Medieval Castles of Wales

The purpose of this book is to give visitors to the medieval castles of Wales a concise but informative description of the main publicly accessible sites in a convenient format. An introductory chapter outlines the development of castle architecture in Britain, drawing on welsh examples, with a number of box features that elaborate more fully on particular aspects, for instance gatehouses, or key personalities, such as Llywelyn Fawr. Five chapters from a regionally based gazetteer of the castles described, and each entry is prefaced with a key to arrangements at each castle, for example whether there is an entry charge. The known history of any given site is summarized and this is followed by the core of each entry, namely the description of the visible remains, to enable visitors to navigate their way around. A final chpater provides a brief overview of castle-like buildings dating from the seventeenth century onwards, which is followed by a guide to further reading.

John R. Kenyon is the head librarian of Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales. He is one of the UK's leading authorities on castles, and has written and edited a number of books and academic papers on this theme, including The Impact of the Edwardian Castles in Wales (2010), to which he contributed and jointly edited.