Raglan Library

Raglan Library was a library located in Raglan Castle in the county of Monmouthshire in south east Wales.^[1][2][3][4]

The castle's state apartments (left), library (centre) and gatehouse (right)

The library contained one of the most extensive collections of ancient Welsh manuscripts in history.^[5] This included works by Dafydd ap Gwilym,^[6] Taliesin, Rhys Goch, Jonas of Menevia, Ederyn the Golden-tongued, Einion the Priest, Cwtta Cyvarwydd, Siôn Cent and Dafydd Ddu o Hiraddug amongst others.^[7]

It was destroyed and looted by parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell in August 1646, during the English Civil War.^[8][9] The destruction of Raglan Library was described as an "irrepairable [sic] loss to the literature of Wales".^[10]