Hay Castle

Hay Castle
Hay Castle from the north, showing the gateway and keep (left) and the mansion house (right)
Location within Powys
General information
Location	Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales
Coordinates	52°07′36″N 3°12′47″W / 52.12667°N 3.21306°W / 52.12667; -3.21306
Construction started	Late 11th or early 12th century

Hay Castle (Welsh: Castell y Gelli) is a medieval fortification and 17th-century mansion house in the small town of Hay-on-Wye in Powys, Wales. Originally constructed as part of the Norman invasion of Wales, the castle was designed as a ringwork overlooking the town in either the late-11th or early-12th centuries. It was rebuilt in stone around 1200 by the de Braose family and then had a turbulent history, being attacked and burnt several times during the First and Second Barons' Wars, the wars with the Welsh princes, the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr and the Wars of the Roses. In the 17th century a Jacobean mansion house was built alongside the medieval keep and the property became a private home. Serious fires in 1939 and 1977 gutted the castle and, despite repairs in the 1980s, by the 21st century much of the building was derelict and unstable. Since 2011 it has been owned by the Hay Castle Trust who plan to renovate the property to form an arts and education centre.

The Normans began to make incursions into South Wales from the late-1060s onwards, pushing westwards from their bases in recently occupied England. Their advance was marked by the construction of castles and the creation of regional lordships. The Norman adventurer Bernard de Neufmarché conquered Brecknock in 1091 and assigned the manor of Hay to one of his followers, Philip Walwyn. The first castle in Hay, later abandoned, was built by St Mary's church outside the main settlement, where a motte known as Hay Tump still survives. The English lordship of Hay, known as Hay Anglicana, became a wealthy walled town and the lands passed by marriage to Miles of Gloucester and then into the de Braose family. In the late 11th or early 12th century, a new fortification was built inside Hay-on-Wye itself, on high ground around 200 metres (660 ft) from the old motte, taking the form of an earth ringwork with a stone gate-tower.