Historic Places in Flintshire

Castell Caergwrle is one of Cadw’s most recent acquisitions through Guardianship, although the wider site remains in the ownership of Hope Community Council. Built between 1278–82 by Dafydd ap Gruffudd (d. 1283), brother of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, on lands given to him by Edward I and taken from Powys, it was the last castle to be built by a native Welsh prince. The castle provided the base for Dafydd’s attack on the English garrison at Hawarden in 1282, which sparked Edward’s second Welsh campaign. Work on the castle continued under the Crown, but it was probably incomplete when it was abandoned after a fire and was ruinous by 1335. There is a waymarked path from the junction of Wrexham Road and Castle Street in the centre of the village. A five-year programme of improvement to the wider castle grounds has been agreed with the community council and is being delivered by Flintshire Countryside Services.

Native-built castle in an unconventional forest setting Though it bears the distinctive features of many of Wales’s native-built castles, Ewloe’s location marks it out as an individual. While the Welsh princes generally chose lofty vantage points for their fortresses, Ewloe sits in a hollow amid deep woodland. The setting may seem idyllic today, but these borderlands were once hotly contested territory where the English and Welsh frequently clashed. Due to the lack of records from the period, the castle’s history is a little murky. The characteristically Welsh D-shaped stone tower was probably built by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (Llywelyn the Great) some time after 1210, with the curtain walls and circular western tower being added by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd (Llywelyn the Last) nearly 60 years later.

The first of Edward I's 'Iron Ring',construction of the castle began around 1277. Besieged by the Welsh in 1282 and 1294 the castle was set on fire to prevent its capture although it was later repaired and partly rebuilt. Richard I was held at the castle in 1399 and it was slighted by the Parliamentarians after they captured it from the Royalists in 1647.

Origins date back to the Iron Age, a Norman castle was reportedly both destroyed and replaced during the 13th century. Dafydd ap Gruffudd attacked the castle in 1282 and he was executed by Edward I in 1283. Following the English Civil War Oliver Cromwell ordered the castle slighted in the 17th century.