Dale Castle is a 13th-century castle located close to the village of Dale in Pembrokeshire,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. In 1910, part of the castle was removed and other parts were incorporated into a new private dwelling house, built in the style of a fortified manor house.

History

Built after the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

invasion of South Wales, the castle was originally built by the de Vales, descendants of a knight who had accompanied

Robert fitz Martin Robert fitz Martin ( 10?? – c. 1159) was a knight from Devon whose father, Martin de Turribus, was the first Norman Lord of Kemes, in what had previously been the Dyfed part of Deheubarth. Fitz Martin inherited the Lordship of Kemes from his fa ...

on his invasion of north Pembrokeshire. The male line died out, meaning that subsequent owners have rotated through the female bloodline. The Walter family of

Roch Castle Roch Castle ( cy, Castell y Garn) is a 12th-century castle, located at Roch near Haverfordwest, Wales. Built by Norman knight Adam de Rupe in the second half of the 12th century, probably on the site of an earlier wooden structure. ''Roche'' ...

took ownership, from whom

Lucy Walter Lucy Walter (c. 1630 – 1658), also known as Lucy Barlow, was a Welsh noblewoman, the first mistress of King Charles II of England and mother of James, Duke of Monmouth. During the Exclusion Crisis, a Protestant faction wanted to make her son h ...

, mistress of King Charles II and mother of the

Duke of Monmouth Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranke ...

was descended. It was then owned by the families of the Paynters, Allens and Lloyds.

The site

Little remains of the original medieval castle and what there is was largely remodelled and incorporated into the present modern house and farm in 1910. In an illustration dating from around 1810, a rectangular battlemented tower is visible with a range of buildings with a hipped roof running to the west. Another illustration, this time from the 1880s, shows these buildings to have had three storeys and the tower was still complete at the time. At the time of the remodelling in 1910, the tower seems to have been reduced in height and both the tower and buildings seem to have lost their roofs. The back wall of the buildings was removed and the front wall became part of the forecourt of the house. The south wing of the current structure was the central block of the medieval castle, east-north-east to west-south-west by , with walls thick. Owned now by the Lloyd Philipps family and their trusts, they have sold much of the remaining non-core estate land holdings, including the island of

Skokholm Skokholm () or Skokholm Island is an island off the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales, south of the neighbouring island of Skomer. The surrounding waters are a marine reserve and all are part of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. Both islands ...

. The castle is not open to the public.

References

{{Pembrokeshire Castles in Pembrokeshire