Penrice Castle Ring

Penrice Castle Ring, also known as Mountyborough, is a substantial ringwork situated within an area of woodland inaccessible to the public a short distance west of Penrice Parish Church. It is clear this represents the surviving parts of a planned settlement established during the early 12th century conquest of Gower by the Earl of Warwick. The tree-covered mound can be seen from the small area adjacent to the parish church, but no features are visible save that it is higher land than that surrounding it.

The old castle of Penrice was an oval ringwork consisting of an oval bank containing an enclosed area of perhaps 40 metres by 30. The bank was provided with a ditch, which has largely disappeared except to the south-west, where it is perhaps three metres wide. A gap in the bank at the northern end probably represents the entrance, suggesting that it may have had a timber tower above a gate passage, such as that found at Penmaen, although the LIDAR also shows a suspicious mound nearby which might represent a post-medieval breach for grazing. Records state that the castle was constructed for Henry de Beaumont, the earl and overlord of all Gower, in 1099. It was subsequently held in return for the service of one knight to the earl by a man who took the name of his estate. Excavations carried out in 1927 revealed that the top of the bank was defended with a timber palisade.

Gower was repeatedly attacked by the native Welsh. The lands had previously been the property of the powerful Deheubarth dynasty, and it is clear they resented the intrusion of an alien lord at the instruction of King Henry I. Attacks by the Deheubarth princelings took place in 1116, 1151, and a more sustained assault took place in 1215 and 1217 by Rhys Gryg, accompanied by the powerful Prince of Gwynedd, Llywelyn ab Iorwerth. It is likely that the castle was burned at that time, and it may not have been reoccupied; the annals say that all the French (presumably including the Penrice lord) were ejected, and in about 1237 the masonry castle to the north-west was begun. Unfortunately I have not been able to find details of the 1927 excavation to determine whether anything else was identified.