Loughor
Castle is very easy to miss, unless you know where to look. Like
Swansea Castle, it stands on a hill overlooking a river, but there is
so much going on around it that the ruins are hard to see.
For a
start, it lies alongside the busy A48 road, with screening either
side. Away from the road, it lies behind houses. And there are steep
banks and a lot of trees. When I visited I could find no signposts
and no way to access it except scrambling up the bank. I am not up to
scrambling these days, so I didn't get near it.
Loughor
lies at the western gateway to Gower. In that respect it was
Swansea's counterpart. Strategically placed at the estuary of the
River Loughor, it was originally used by the Romans, who built a fort
there and called it Leucarum. The fort guarded the road to Carmarthen
and was a major communications route.
When
the Romans left in the 4th century the fort was abandoned
and fell into decay, until the coming of the Normans in the 12th century. The Welsh name is Llwchwr, which the Normans couldn't
pronounce (neither can most non-Welsh people today) so they called it
Loughor. The Earl of Warwick, Henry de Beaumont, built a ringwork
castle on the same site, but after many Welsh attacks and burnings a
stone castle was built.
Loughor
Castle was one of those given to William de Braose (or Breos) by King
John in 1203. The story of William's rise and fall at the hands of
King John is told in my book, Broken Reed: The Lords of Gower and
King John. When Gower was
regained by the de Braose family, William's grandson John de
Braose became its lord, and added a low stone curtain wall. The
rectangular tower which is the main feature of the ruins was built in
the late 13th century by John's son William for
residential use.
In
1302 a later William gave Loughor Castle to his steward John Iweyn.
The story of William's daughter and son-in-law is told in my book,
Alina, The White Lady of Oystermouth.
Alina's son John de Mowbray eventually inherited the castle along
with the rest of Gower.
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