Castell Crugerydd
Castell Crugerydd near Llanfihangel-nant-Melan in Powys is a ruined twelfth-century motte-and-bailey castle in the remote upland landscape of mid-Wales, representing the Norman penetration of this mountainous border country between the Welsh kingdoms of Maelienydd and Elfael. The earthwork castle was part of the network of Norman fortifications attempting to control the Welsh uplands in the twelfth century, a process of repeated advance and retreat as the native Welsh princes resisted colonisation. The remote setting in the upland hills south of Radnor Forest gives the site an atmospheric quality typical of the lesser-known castle earthworks of mid-Wales, where the sparse population and undeveloped landscape preserve medieval earthworks in a condition unusual in more intensively farmed parts of Britain. The surrounding landscape of the Radnorshire hills and the Wye valley provides quiet walking country in one of the least visited but most scenically rewarding parts of Wales.