*LLANDOVERY, or Llanymdyfri, or the castle of Cantrebohhan.--It is referred to in the _Pipe Rolls_ of 1159-1160 by the latter name, which is only a Norman way of spelling Cantref Bychan, the little cantref or hundred, of which this castle was the head.[944] It was then in royal custody, and Henry II. spent nearly £60 on its works. But it had originally belonged to Richard Fitz Pons, one of the barons of Bernard de Neufmarché, and the fact that he held the key of this cantref goes to prove that it was from Brecknock that the Normans advanced into northern Carmarthenshire. The castle is first mentioned in the _Brut_ in 1115, when Griffith ap Rhys burnt the bailey, but could not take the keep on the motte.[945] It does not appear to have been long in English hands after 1159, but its alternations were many. The 25-inch O.M. shows an oval motte, carrying some fragments of masonry, to which is attached a roughly quadrangular bailey. This was one of the many castles by which the Normans held Strath Towy. LLANSTEPHAN.[946]--This castle stands in a splendid situation at the mouth of the Towy, and was doubtless built to secure a maritime base for Carmarthen. The motte is of unusual size, semicircular in shape, one side being on the edge of the cliff; it measures 300 feet by 200 in the centre of the arc.[947] Such a size allowed all the important parts of the castle to be built on the motte; but there was a rectangular bailey attached, which is only imperfectly shown on the O.M.; the scarp is in reality well marked on all sides, and the ditch separating it from the motte is a very deep one. [H. W.] The towers that now crown the motte are not earlier than the year 1256, when the castle was destroyed by Llywelyn.[948] DINEVOR, or Dinweiler.--Most Welsh writers associate Dinevor with the ancient residence of the kings of South Wales, but there appears to be some doubt about this, as the place is not mentioned before the 12th century.[949] Anyhow the castle was certainly the work of Earl Gilbert, as the _Brut_ itself tells us so.[950] In 1162 it was taken by Rhys ap Griffith, the able prince who attempted the consolidation of South Wales, and who was made Justiciar of that province by Henry II. It continued in Welsh hands, sometimes hostile, sometimes allied, till it was finally taken by the English in 1277. The existing ruins are entirely of the 13th century, but the plan certainly suggests a previous motte and bailey, the motte having probably been lowered to form the present smaller ward, whose walls and towers appear to be of Edward I.'s reign. The small bailey attached to this ward is separated from it by a ditch cut through the headland on which the castle stands.