When Lord Balon Greyjoy loosed his longships upon the western coast of the north in 299 AC, he found that coast all but undefended, for the strength of the north had marched south with the young wolf Robb Stark. The stony shore and the wolfswood lay open, and the ironborn came ashore where they pleased. Two of the first prizes were Torrhen's Square, the seat of House Tallhart, and Deepwood Motte, the ancient hall of House Glover; both had been stripped of their fighting men, left in the keeping of women, greybeards, and boys.
Torrhen's Square fell to the guile of Dagmer Cleftjaw. Rather than break himself against its stout walls, he loosed a raiding party to burn and pillage the countryside, and so drew out the garrison. The heir Benfred Tallhart, a rash and boastful youth, rode forth at the head of a band of green boys he had named the Wild Hares, and the ironborn cut them down in the open field. Benfred was taken and, when he spat defiance and named his captors squids, put to a cruel death; with the castle's defenders slain or scattered, Torrhen's Square passed into ironborn hands.
Deepwood Motte was the prize of Balon's daughter, Asha Greyjoy, who came upon it from the sea with thirty longships and a host of raiders. Landing swiftly and marching inland through the wolfswood, she stormed the timber hall of the Glovers and took it by escalade before word of her coming could spread. Lady Sybelle Glover and her children were made captive, and Asha settled into the seat to hold the western marches for her father. So did two of the north's western keeps fall in a single season, at little cost to the reavers, a wound that would fester behind Robb Stark's back while he won his battles in the south.