Caergwrle Castle

Caergwrle — known in scholarly texts as Queen's Hope — was built by the Welsh under Dafydd ap Gruffydd, then in service to Edward I of England, and was the last castle raised by Welsh rulers before the loss of independence. When Dafydd's forces rebelled, Edward sent Reginald de Grey, 1st Baron Grey de Wilton, to take it in June 1282, but Dafydd had already retreated, sabotaging the structure behind him.

Rebuilding began and the castle was given to Edward's queen, Eleanor of Castile, who was granted a weekly market for a town planned at its base. Both king and queen were present when fire broke out in September 1283; the town scheme was abandoned, and though the damaged castle passed down the royal line — to Edward of Caernarfon, then for life to John of Cromwell on condition he repair it — it was never rebuilt.

The ruin was then quarried both piecemeal and on an industrial scale: the west curtain wall and most of the south tower are gone, historians suspect taken apart and rolled down the steep hill. The surviving foundations are of gritstone cut from Caergwrle hill itself, the finer masonry reserved for the residential ranges. In 1823 a workman found the Caergwrle Bowl nearby — a unique Bronze Age vessel.