Roger, bishop of Salisbury, became lord of the Kidwelly cantref in 1106 and built the original castle as an earth and timber ringwork. Payn de Chaworth, Edward I's commander in south Wales, most likely began the present stone castle in the 1270s. John of Gaunt began the great gatehouse in 1388 or 1389, and it was completed in 1422.
The plan is concentric. A square inner bailey with four round towers sits within a semicircular outer curtain wall, with a massive gatehouse at the southern angle. The article compares the inner ward to Edward I's Flint Castle and to Goodrich Castle.
Llywelyn the Great captured and razed it in 1215 and again in 1231. A Welsh force besieged it unsuccessfully in 1403. It was taken into state care in 1927 and appeared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail in 1975.
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