Castell Dolbadarn

Castell Dolbadarn

Replacing the autogen scenery with a model of Dolbadarn Castle, Llanberis.

Castell Dolbadarn is a 13th century castle in Llanberis, Wales. It was built in the 1220s or 1230s by Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, also known as Llywelyn Fawr (Llywelyn the Great), the Prince of Gwynedd, to guard the Llanberis Pass.

Llywelyn’s grandson, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd took power in 1246 following the death of his uncle, Dafydd ap Llywelyn. A dispute with his older brother, Owain, and younger brother Dafydd led to the Battle of Bryn Derwin in 1255. Llywelyn was successful in the battle, captured Owain, and subsequently imprisoned him in the tower at Dolbadarn Castle for over 20 years.

In 1282, Llywelyn’s brother, Dafydd, kickstarted the last war of Welsh independence against King Edward I by attacking Hawarden Castle. Llywelyn was killed in December 1282, and Dafydd succeeded him as Prince of Wales. Dafydd based his administration from Dolbadarn Castle, but by this time he was hunted by the English. He was eventually captured in June 1283 and taken to Shrewsbury. He became the first person to be convicted of high treason against the King of England, and the first prominent person to be hung, drawn and quartered.

Dolbadarn was used as a manor house into the 14th century, but was uninhabited and in ruins by the 18th century. It became a popular destination for painters, most notably, J. M. W. Turner, who painted the castle in 1800.

The castle is now in the care of CADW, the Welsh government agency responsible for the maintenance of historical buildings across the country.

This mod replaces the auto-generated scenery, which just consists of a strange, small round house, with a 3D model of the castle.

As a bonus, I have also thinned out some of the trees on Llyn Padarn and added in the famous Lone Tree.

NOTE: With this version, I’m still not happy with the textures, but I’ll continue to work on it and hopefully update it soon!

Unzip the downloaded folder and copy the “castelldolbadarn” folder into your Packages/Community folder. You can find the castle at coordinates: 53.116571, -4.114159