Sycharth is a

motte and bailey castle 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 ...

and town in Llansilin,

Powys Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. Geog ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. Until 1996 Sycharth was in the historic county of

Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...

, but was then transferred to the Shire area of

Montgomeryshire , HQ= Montgomery , Government= Montgomeryshire County Council (1889–1974)Montgomeryshire District Council (1974–1996) , Origin= , Status= , Start= , End= ...

within

. Sycharth Castle was the birthplace of

Owain Glyndŵr Owain ap Gruffydd (), commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr (, anglicised as Owen Glendower), was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wa ...

Location

Sycharth sits in the valley of the river Cynllaith, a tributary of the

Afon Tanat Afon Tanat is a river in northern Powys, Wales. Its source is close to the Cyrniau Nod mountain, to the north of Lake Vyrnwy. The river flows in a generally east-south-east direction until it joins the River Vyrnwy near Llansantffraid-ym-Mech ...

. The site of

’s castle lies about a kilometre to the west of the boundary between England and Wales with a belt of woodland on the higher ground to the east known as Parc Sycharth. Immediately to the west of the castle is a farm that was the courthouse for the township until the 19th century. The site is on minor road close to the B4580, south of Llansilin and to the southwest of

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough ...

. The site is in the guardianship of

Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage ...

and there is a small carpark with information boards.

The earlier history of the castle

The castle was situated in the Welsh territory of

Powys Fadog Powys Fadog (English: ''Lower Powys'' or ''Madog's Powys'') was the northern portion of the former princely realm of Powys, which split in two following the death of Madog ap Maredudd in 1160. The realm was divided under Welsh law, with Madog's ...

which had formed part of the Welsh

Kingdom of Powys The Kingdom of Powys ( cy, Teyrnas Powys; la, Regnum Poysiae) was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. It very roughly covered the northern t ...

. Following the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...

two of the

commotes A commote ( Welsh ''cwmwd'', sometimes spelt in older documents as ''cymwd'', plural ''cymydau'', less frequently ''cymydoedd'')'' Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru'' (University of Wales Dictionary), p. 643 was a secular division of land in Medieval ...

, Cynllaith and Edeyrnion came under the control of the Normans. There seems little doubt that Sycharth or ‘Cynllaith Owain’ was a

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 t ...

built by the Normans. An entry in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

, would indicate that this had taken place before 1086. The Normans also built a castle at

Rhug Rhug (normally Y Rug in Welsh; sometimes given the antiquarian spelling Rûg) is a township in the parish of Corwen, Denbighshire, Wales, formerly in the old cantref of Edeirnion and later a part of Merionethshire, two miles from CorwenRug Chapel ...

that would have been the centre for Edeyrnion. These commotes passed into the possession of Madog Crypl c1275-1304, described as Lord of

Glyndyfrdwy Glyndyfrdwy (), or sometimes Glyn Dyfrdwy, is a village in the modern county of Denbighshire, Wales. It is situated on the A5 road halfway between Corwen and Llangollen in the Dee Valley (the river Dee is ''Afon Dyfrdwy'' in Welsh). History A ...

and Lord of Cynllaith Owain. Madog was a direct descendant of the Princes of Powys and

Gruffudd Fychan II Gruffudd Fychan II was Lord of Glyndyfrdwy and Lord of Cynllaith Owain c.1330–1369. As such, he had a claim to be hereditary Prince of Powys Fadog. Ancestry The epithet 'Fychan' implies that his father was also called Gruffudd. However c ...

, the father of Owain Glyndŵr, was probably his grandson. Owain Glyndŵr inherited Sycharth in 1369 and it was here that Glyndŵr lived with his wife Margaret Hanmer and their children.

Iolo Goch's description

Iolo Goch Iolo Goch (c. 1320 – c. 1398) (meaning ''Iolo the Red'' in English) was a medieval Welsh bard who composed poems addressed to Owain Glyndŵr, among others. Lineage Iolo was the son of Ithel Goch ap Cynwrig ap Iorwerth Ddu ap Cynwrig Ddew ...

described Sycharth as containing ‘nine plated buildings on the scale of eighteen mansions, fair wooden buildings on top of a green hill’ and ‘a tiled roof on every house with frowning forehead, and a chimney from which the smoke would grow; nine symmetrical, identical halls, and nine wardrobes by each one’.

Archaeological evidence

Excavations in the early 1960s revealed the presence of two timber halls on the flat topped mound, one being 43 metres in length and provided evidence of the site being burned, as it was by Harry of Monmouth, later to become

King Henry V Henry V (16 September 1386 – 31 August 1422), also called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1413 until his death in 1422. Despite his relatively short reign, Henry's outstanding military successes in the Hu ...

when he was present to oversee the total destruction of the site in May 1403.

Destruction

Prince Henry wrote to his father King Henry IV on May 15, 1403 that "we took our people and went to a place of the said Oweyn, well built, which was his principal mansion called Saghern, where we supposed that we should have found him if he had been willing to have fought in the manner as he said, but upon our arrival we found no one; hence we caused the whole place and many of his other houses of his tenants in the neighbourhood to be burnt and then went directly to his other place of Glyndourdy (

) to seek for him there. We caused a fine lodge in his park to be burned and all the country therabout and we lodged at rest there all that night..." File:Sycharth, Llansilin 01.JPG, Sycharth, Motte and Bailey Castle, Llansilin, Powys File:Sycharth, Llansilin 10.JPG, Sycharth, Motte and Bailey Castle looking towards Llansilin File:Sycharth, Llansilin 03.JPG, Sycharth, Motte and Bailey Castle and adjacent farmhouse File:Sycharth, Llansilin 04.JPG, Sycharth, Motte and Bailey Castle with the woodland of Parc Sycharth File:Sycharth, Llansilin 05.JPG, Sycharth, Motte from the south. File:Sycharth, Llansilin 06.JPG, Sycharth, Looking from inner bank to Medieval fishpond. File:Sycharth, Llansilin 07.JPG, Sycharth, Motte and bank on N side. File:Sycharth, Llansilin 08.JPG, Sycharth, Motte and bank on N side.

References

Literature

* Burnham, Helen, ''A Guide to Ancient and Historic Wales: Clwyd and Powys'', 1995, CADW/HMSO * Davies, R R, ''The Revolt of Owain Glyndwr'', 1995 * Hague, Douglas & Warhurst, Cynthia, Excavations at Sycharth Castle, Denbighshire 1962-3, "Archaeologia Cambrensis" 1966 vol. 115, 108-27 * Higham, Robert & Barker, Philip, ''Timber Castles'', Batsford, London, 1992 * Johnston Dafydd, ''Iolo Goch: The Poems'', Gomer Welsh Classics Series, Llandysul, 1993. * Richards, R., ''The mediaeval castles of north Montgomeryshire: a topographical survey''. "Montgomeryshire Collections" 1942, Vol. 47 p. 164-82 * Richards, R., '' 'Sycharth " Montgomeryshire Collections' 1948, Vol. 50 p. 183-8 * Smith, Spencer Gavin, ''Report on the Geophysical and Historical Survey at Sycharth Motte and Bailey'', "Transactions of the Denbighshire Historical Society", Vol 52, 2003, pp17–36

External links

*
Aerial photo of the site
* Details on RCHMW sites, including photographs of 1963 excavations

* Details on Castlefact

* BBC vide

{{Powys History of Denbighshire Castles in Powys Motte-and-bailey castles