Caergwrle Castle | Castle Number 9 in the Castle Casanovas Challenge

Caergwrle Castle is located in Caergwrle, Wrexham and was Castle number nine in the Castle Casanovas Challenge and Castle number 4 in the Welsh Castles Challenge. We visited in September 2022, where we visited several castles on the same day in a kind of castles grand tour. 

I will again apologise for the state of the photographs in this post, I again did the whole only take video footage reels thing and I had to screenshot the video to create the photographs so the quality is quite poor. I promise that the image quality does improve for future posts and there are also now separate reel videos coming on Instagram - I told you we would get better at this blogging / social media stuff eventually!

When his father died in the 13th Century, the Llewelyn defied the Welsh law of 'equal shares' and claimed the Kingdom for himself, leaving his three brothers with nothing. Dafydd, the youngest, appealed to the English King Edward I who helped him to reclaim the area, the vale of Clwyd and parts of Conwy. After that, Edward gave Dafydd money and stonemasons to commence building works of Caergwrle Castle and it was built in 1277.

Five years later, in 1282, Dafydd changed sides and joined forces with Llewelyn to fight against Edward I's invasion of Wales. Dafydd destroyed his own castle, which was unfinished, before launching a fierce attack on the nearby English occupied Hawarden Castle in March 1282. Later that same year, Edward I reclaimed Caergwrle Castle's ruins and began rebuilding. Unfortunately there was a disastrous fire in 1283, which destroyed the castle and the restoration was abandoned. 

Edward, understandably, was furious at the betrayal and the fact he had lost a castle (who can blame him) and ensured the treacherous Dafydd was captured, disembowelled, hung, drawn and quartered on 3 October 1283. Caergwrle Castle is thought to be the shortest occupied castle in the UK despite being occupied for 6 years.

Caergwrle Castle's remains were received into state care by Lord Elis-Thomas AM, Minister for Culture Tourism and Sport from Hope Community Council in 2018. Cadw now look after it and it is open to the public all year round and free to visit. The castle itself is in a ruined condition, but still spectacular to visit and took us around half an hour to walk around and properly take in the surroundings. 

 Until Next Time

The Castle Casanovas

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Castle Number 6 - Dalquharran Old Castle 

Castle Number 7 - New Dalquharran Castle

Castle Number 8 - Conwy Castle