322 A TOUR ROUND NORTH WALES, 



bly, when the feudal fyftem prevailed in 

 Wales, and petty chieftains were engaged 

 in perpetual wars with each other, Dol- 

 wyddelan Caftle, and others fimilar to it, 

 may have been built by fome of them as 

 places to which they might retreat, where 

 they could refide in fecurity, attended by 

 their vaffals and adherents in cafe they 

 mould be neceffitated by fuperior force to 

 quit the plains and more cultivated parts. 

 Thefe caftles would alfo, at the fame time, 

 anfwer the purpofe of guarding the pafles 

 and defiles amongft the mountains. 



Mr. Rowlands fuppofes * that this, as 

 well as Dolbadarn Caflle in the vale of 

 Llanberis, was built fo early as the time of 

 Maelgwn Gwynedd, in the fixth century. 

 What the reafons for his conjecture could 

 be I cannot tell, as I have been able to 

 meet with nothing upon the fubject in 



* Mona Antiqua Reflaurata, 149. 



any 



