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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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Erw'r Castell Mound, Caerwys

In the community of Caerwys.
In the historic county of Flintshire.
Modern authority of Flintshire.
Preserved county of Clwyd.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ132729
Latitude 53.24604° Longitude -3.30312°

Erw'r Castell Mound, Caerwys has been described as a probable Timber Castle, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House, and also as a Palace although is doubtful that it was such.

There are uncertain remains.

Description

Mound 30m diameter, approx 2.5m high, probably natural on steeply sloped hillside. In the centre of the field is a more or less circular earthen mound 70 paces circ and 8-10ft high (Davies 1949, 79). Site is a natural feature on a steeply sloping hillside (CPAT site visit 30/09/99). (Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust HER)

In a field near the village, called Erw'r Castell, was anciently a fortress, the history of which is unknown, and of which there are no remains. (Lewis 1849)

Comments

Site just east of Caerwys church. Caerwys was a town of importance in medieval times (the site of an assize) and has the road layout of a planned Norman town. The tenurial history was as a holding of welsh princes. There should have been a high status manor and court house or llys at Caerwys which may well have had some symbolic military architectural features. Caerwys was granted a Royal Charter in 1290 which would be late for a timber castle but their was an earlier settlement. Although this mound is recorded as either natural or a ?round barrow its location is possible for a castle. Lewis mound may refer to this site or to a fieldname recorded at SJ128734, an even more likely castle site just north of the town (The town is natural defended by steep slopes on sides except the North). However Lewis's 'fortress' may be a reference to a reputed Roman fort from which the town takes it name, although a Roman origin would not preclude medieval use of the site as a llys.

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

Data >		County HER
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 County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) for this site is/are 102518; 102723.

Books
- Davies, E., 1949, Prehistoric and Roman Remains of Flint (Cardiff)
  Lewis, Samual, 1849, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales online copy

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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 before 1 February 2016

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