The site of Prysor castle lies high in a steep valley controlling the route from Bala to Tremadog.  It has no known history before King Edward I stayed there while surveying his new lands in Wales after the fall of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (d.1282).  That the castle does not appear again in the written record would suggest that the king found his sojourn here uncomfortable and the upkeep of this isolated fortress was considered no longer necessary.  We have no idea who built the castle, other than the suggestion that it was a predecessor of Prince Llywelyn.

The ruins consist of a large pile of stones, often wrongly described as a motte.  An old print shows that this was once a stone tower which has now collapsed in on itself.  Towards the rising hillside was a weak bailey, in which there are the remains of buried portions of what appears to be a hall block, unless it was a later farm.

Copyright©2016 Paul Martin Remfry

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