- Type
- Castle
- Origins
- 13th century per Wikidata: founding, first mention or construction
- Location
- Wales, United Kingdom
- Coordinates
- 53.0779°, -2.8802°
History
After the conquest of Wales in 1282, Edward I granted the lordship of Bromfield and Yale to John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, who began building a castle on a rock above the River Dee. Completed around 1311, it was a pentagon with towers at the corners, surrounded by a moat cut where the stone had been quarried. In the 14th century the castle passed to the FitzAlan earls of Arundel; in 1399 Richard II kept his treasure here, and it fell into the hands of Henry Bolingbroke. In the Civil War a Royalist garrison held out against Parliament until January 1647, after which the castle was slighted. In the 1670s Sir Thomas Grosvenor carried much of the stone away by barge down the river to build Eaton Hall.
What to see
What survives is the sandstone core of the rock with fragments of walls, cellars and tower bases, ringed by a dry moat. New stairs and walkways lead to the top of the rock, and panels show what the five-sided fortress once looked like. The castle is a few minutes' walk from the medieval bridge over the Dee that links Wales with Farndon in England.
Wikipedia article Official website Wikidata Q5884534
Popularity: articles about this site in 17 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).