Hawarden Old Castle ( cy, Castell Penarlâg) is a Grade I listed
medieval castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
near
Hawarden
Hawarden (; cy, Penarlâg) is a village, community (Wales), community and Wards and electoral divisions of the United Kingdom, electoral ward in Flintshire, Wales. It is part of the Deeside conurbation on the Wales-England border and is home ...
,
Flintshire,
Wales.
The castle's origins are indeterminate and the oldest fortifications on this site may date back to the
Iron Age, later being used as a
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
Motte-and-bailey
A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...
castle which was reportedly destroyed and replaced in a short period during the 13th century.
The castle played an important role during the
Welsh
Welsh may refer to:
Related to Wales
* Welsh, referring or related to Wales
* Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales
* Welsh people
People
* Welsh (surname)
* Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
struggle for independence in the 13th century. At Easter 1282,
Dafydd ap Gruffudd
Dafydd ap Gruffydd (11 July 1238 – 3 October 1283) was Prince of Wales from 11 December 1282 until his execution on 3 October 1283 on the orders of King Edward I of England. He was the last native Prince of Wales before the conquest of Wa ...
attacked Hawarden Castle, thereby starting the final Welsh conflict with Norman England, in the course of which Welsh independence was lost.
King Edward I
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassa ...
's sense of outrage was such that he designed a punishment for Dafydd harsher than any previous form of capital punishment; Dafydd was
hanged, drawn, and quartered in Shrewsbury in October 1283.
A sense at the wider outrage caused by Dafydd's attack being made at Easter can be read in the account of the Chronicle of Lanercost;
". . . the Welsh nation, unable to pass their lives in peace, broke over their borders on Palm Sunday, carrying fire and sword among the people engaged in procession, and even laid siege
o some places – probably referring to Flint and Rhuddlan whose Prince Llywelyn, deceived (more's the pity) by the advice of his brother David, fiercely attacked his lord the King; as we read written about Christ, 'him whom I loved most hath set himself against me.'"
In 1294 the castle was captured during the revolt of
Madog ap Llywelyn.
After the
English Civil War in the 17th century the castle was
slighted on the orders of
Oliver Cromwell. Its ruins are on the
New Hawarden Castle estate and are open to the public on some Sundays, typically the second and fourth Sundays in summertime.
References
* Alan Reid, The Castles of Wales (Letts Guides, 1973).
External links
Visitor Information: Hawarden
Castles in Flintshire
Castle ruins in Wales
Grade I listed castles in Wales
Grade I listed buildings in Flintshire
Grade I listed ruins in Wales
Scheduled monuments in Flintshire
{{Wales-castle-stub