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The comprehensive gazetteer and bibliography of the medieval castles, fortifications and palaces of England, Wales, the Islands.

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Hafod y Bwch

In the community of Esclusham.
In the historic county of Denbighshire.
Modern authority of Wrexham.
Preserved county of Clwyd.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ30864768
Latitude 53.02199° Longitude -3.03209°

Hafod y Bwch has been described as a Timber Castle but is rejected as such.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Barrow lying North-East of Rhosllanerchrugog. The barrow is lightly covered by trees and bracken. An electricity pylon is situated at the foot of the barrow. (Coflein)

Tumulus stands on slightly rising ground, composed of soil with turf cover. Indications of slight moat around base. 9ft high and 80 yds circ. Signs of disturbance on NW side (Davies 1929, 121). Large mound 40m diam and 2.3m high on average. S side cut into and almost levelled by farm track (Cadw 1986). Extremely large mound appears composed of gravel and loam. Fence with lane on S side crosses S slope of mound and partly truncates it. Mound probably originally extended to S of lane. Mound covered in dense gorse and scrub. Slight scarp on W side may be due to ploughing, but may be inner edge of a ditch - a slight hollow (2.2m wide, 0.2m deep) is visible around much of N perimeter. Some erosion of mound by sheep. Mound is unusually large for a barrow. No other large mounds in general area, so unlikely to be glacial. Perhaps 40m diam and 2 to 2.5m high (CPAT 1999). (Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust HER)

Comments

Listed in 1963 as a motte but rejected in 1970 by Hogg and King as apparently a cairn or barrow. Scheduled as Round Barrow. The location, near a hafod, is not improbable for a motte and it is large for a barrow but does seem to be fully rejected.

Links to archaeological and architectural databases, mapping and other online resources

Data >	Coflein	County HER	Scheduling
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	Historic Wales	V. O. B.	Geology	LIDAR
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio

Sources of information, references and further reading

The CADW scheduled monument record number is DE047.
The National Monument Record (Coflein) number(s) for this site is/are 308764.
The County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 101238.

Books
- Burnham, H., 1995, A Guide to Ancient and Historic Wales: Clwyd and Powys (Cadw, London)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 106
  Davies, E., 1929, Prehistoric and Roman Remains of Denbighshire (Cardiff)
  RCAHMW, 1914, An inventory of the Ancient Monuments of Denbighshire (HMSO) p. 56 no. 177 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1970, 'Castles in Wales and the Marches (Additions and corrections to lists published in 1963 and 1967)' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 119 p. 119-124 (reject and map ref corrected to SJ310465)
  Hogg, A.H.A. and King, D.J.C., 1963, 'Early castles in Wales and the Marches: a preliminary list' Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 112 p. 77-124
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Owen, W.G., 1992, The Wrexham Water Company Conjunctive Use Scheme: archaeological assessment of the proposed route (CPAT report)

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales, the four welsh archaeological trusts and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain Designated Historic Asset Descriptive Information from The Welsh Historic Environment Service (Cadw), licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown.
Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Lidar coverage in the UK is not complete. The button above will give an idea of the area of coverage. Higher resolution lidar images in both DSM and DTM form may be available from Lle A geo-Portal for Wales (click the preview tag to bring up a map and then select format byclicking on the small blue diamond in the top right corner of the map.)

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This record last updated 02/07/2016 21:32:34

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