One of the best things about being a history buff living in Wales is the abundance of awesome castles throughout the countryside. Not far from where I live is the picturesque ruins of Ogmore Castle (Castell Ogwr ), built by the Norman invaders circa 1100 and finally abandoned altogether sometime in the mid 19th century.
It’s easy to see why the Normans chose the site to build a stronghold. Ogmore Castle sits alongside the River Ewenny.
The River Ewenny connects to the Bristol Channel in the Ogmore estuary just a few miles away, and thus gave the Normans easy access to the sea by boat.
The river would have also provided water for livestock, and was channeled into a moat for extra protection in case of an attack by Welsh resistance.
The first historical record of Ogmore Castle is found inn Caradoc of Llancarfan‘s The historie of Cambria, now called Wales: a part of the most famous yland of Brytaine. Although it may not be entirely accurate, Caradoc wrote that the castle was built on the orders of Robert Fitzhamon, a Anglo-Norman follower (and possible relative) of William the Conqueror.
Once completed, Fitzhamon gave the castle and the surrounding lands to William de Londres, one of the semi-mythical Twelve Knights of Glamorgan, as a reward for his help in the invasion of southern Wales.
Not that the invasion was successful as soon as the castle was built, of course. The Welsh resistance continued for generations. At the beinging of the 13th century the contemporary de Londres living there, Thomas, had to replaced his great-grandfather’s timber palisade with a stone wall because of the continued assaults on the castle by Welshmen who were still irked by the theft of their ancestral lands.
In fact, Welsh attacks on Ogmore Castle continued until Owain Glyndŵr‘s 15th century rebellion, when a group of Glyndŵr loyalists damaged the castle. After the the unsuccessful Welsh Revolt ended, the local government took the opportunity to build a new courthouse in the damaged castle’s outer bailey in 1454, which was still in use in 1631.
Of course, no castle ruins would be complete without a resident ghost. According to local folklore, Ogmore Castle is haunted by Y Ladi Wen (the White Lady), whose uneasy spirit guards the remains of a treasure buried somewhere under the stones of the castle’s tower. To attempt to find the treasure is to risk the wrath of the Lady in White, who can manifest claws when angered and will punish anyone greedy or foolish enough to dig for gold on her grounds.
