Owain Glyndwr's Mount

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The monument comprises two elements; A) a well preserved, medium sized motte occupying the lip of a steep slope on the southern flank of the Dee Valley and B), the earthwork remains of a medieval moated manor house located in a hollow some 180m to the east.

The motte stands on a low glacial hillock and rises directly from the valley slopes to the south, the ground falling less steeply away to the field to the north. It stands some 6.5m high above the level of the field, its oval summit measuring approximately 12m in diameter. There are no signs of and masonry or an encircling ditch towards the field, the natural slopes to the south providing ample protection in this direction. There are also no traces of a bailey or outer works, although there is a narrow shelf at the base of the mound that could have supported a building. The motte is one of two known early castle sites in the commote of Ederinion although may initially have been established by the Normans in the 12th century to command the route along the Dee valley, in which it occupies a prominent position. It is not known whether it was occupied into the later medieval period or by Owain Glyndwr himself, it being more likely that the adjacent moated site had superseded it as a manorial centre by this time.

The moated site comprises a wet, flat bottomed ditch surrounding the level, c40m square platform of a former medieval manor house. The ditch has been partly backfilled and ploughed at its south-eastern corner but the overall layout of the site, with a feeder leat or stream to the NE is clear. This platform, rather than the motte, is assumed to be the location of the timber mansion of Owain Glyndwr, destroyed in 1403 by English forces.

The monument is of national importance as a good example of successive medieval military and domestic earthworks, the latter of probable Welsh origin. They have high potential to retain significant buried archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the construction, development, occupation and the material culture of the site. The monument occupies a prominent position in Welsh history, it being at Glyndyfyrdwy that Owain Glyndwr proclaimed himself Prince of Wales in 1400.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described above and an area around them in which related evidence might be expected to survive.