Castell Dinas was an Iron Age hillfort and later became a fortified castle in southern Powys, Wales. It is situated a couple of miles south of Talgarth and is the highest hillfort in England and Wales positioned at an altitude of 450 metres. At the top it offers extensive views of the Black Mountains.
In Welsh, Dinas means a “fortress” or a “stronghold” and there are many fortresses with that name in Wales.
It was a tough climb to access it from the Castle Inn pub in the valley, and the track became steeper and steeper as I progressed uphill.
The original hillfort, of which only the earth walls can be seen now, was erected during the Iron Age, around 600 BC and lasted several hundred years. It got a second lease of life, when the Normans invaded England and fortified the Welsh Marches. They built a stone castle around 1070 on the site of the ancient hill fort defending the valley between Talgarth and Crickhowell.
At its heydays the castle consisted of a large keep and no less than five towers set into a curtain wall. Of this hardly anything can be seen now. The only things remaining when I visited were some earth walls and ditches of the original iron age fort and a few walls of the Norman castle.
