House Manwoody of Kingsgrave is a noble house of northern Dorne, sworn to the Martells of Sunspear. Their castle stands amid the Prince's Pass through the Red Mountains, where any host bound from the Reach into Dorne must come within reach of Manwoody arrows. Semi-canon lore holds that the founder of the line slew a king and took both the crown and the name of his castle from the deed — and so the Manwoodys quarter a skull beneath a golden crown on a field of black, that no man might mistake what the line is willing to do.
The Manwoodys are reckoned among the proudest of Dorne's marcher lords, and their pass-keeping is reckoned among the realm's chief defences against any southward war. At the opening of A Game of Thrones Lord Dagos Manwoody keeps Kingsgrave and the pass for Prince Doran, his crowned skull flying beside the sun-and-spear above the Red Mountains.