Dryslwyn is a small hamlet which has developed around the crossroads between the B4297 and an unclassified road, approximately five miles south west of Llandeilo. It is best known for the castle on the south eastern side of the hamlet. Dryslwyn Castle (NPRN 100682) 'was founded by a local Welsh prince in the second quarter of the thirteenth century. It was twice expanded before, in 1287, it was captured for the English crown after a desperate and famous siege.' After the siege, a walled borough (NPRN 109584) was founded, which 'received its charter in 1281. By the mid fourteenth century there were thirty-four burgages within the walls and fourteenth in 'Briggestrete' without. A burgage was a houseplot with certain rights and duties attached. The borough had been abandoned by the seventeenth century.'
Although the borough had been abandoned by the seventeenth century, the hamlet of Dryslwyn remained occupied. A Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapel (NPRN 6515) was built in 1792 and remained in use until the 1970s. By 1997 it had been converted to residential use. The first and second editions of the 25inch OS maps, published in 1888 and 1906 respectively, shows that the hamlet once had a public house called the Dryslwyn Castle, although this has now closed.
Sources: modern and historic OS maps; Coflein database
M. Ryder, RCAHMW, 29th November 2018
