The Gatehouse website logo
The comprehensive gazetteer and bibliography of the medieval castles, fortifications and palaces of England, Wales, the Islands.
 
 
Home
The listings
Other Info
Books
Links
Downloads
Contact
 
Print Page 
 
Next Record 
Previous Record 
Back to list 

Sycharth Castle, Llansilin

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Castle of Owain Glyndwr; Saghern

In the community of Llansilin.
In the historic county of Denbighshire.
Modern authority of Powys.
Preserved county of Clwyd.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ20522586
Latitude 52.82449° Longitude -3.18084°

Sycharth Castle, Llansilin has been described as a certain Timber Castle.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
Description

At Sycharth are the well preserved earthworks of a medieval castle occupying a low knoll in the base of the Cynllaith valley, below its steep wooded slopes. The castle may be as early as the twelfth century, but direct evidence is lacking. It was fullsomely, but obliquely described in a poem of about 1390 and was burnt in 1403, having no further history. This is a motte and bailey castle, consisting of a large ditched earthen motte or castle mound, 50m in diameter and 10.6m high with a 26m diameter summit, with a crescentic bailey platform, 64m across and 32m deep, on the south-west side. Excavations of a small part of the motte top in 1962-3 only uncovered evidence for two timber framed buildings, part of what the 1390 poem describes as 'a fine wooden house atop a green hill'. Further buildings, including a great lordly hall, would have stood within the bailey. The poem mentions a mill, fishponds, a warren and a deerpark containing a lodge. (Coflein)

Poem describes timber hall on motte as a framed building of post and truss type, not a cruck building. It had 8 upper rooms, a tiled roof, chimney and nine 'wardrobes' (Peate, I C, 2000, 130). Geophysical survey funded by Cadw in 2009. This revealed, amongst other things, a second enclosure to the north. (Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust HER)

Manor held by Owain Glyndwr and destroyed in 1403. Excavations 1962-3 uncovered traces of stone-cill walled buildings upon the motte. Excavations showed the castle still in use in C14 but was never given masonry defences and this was the caput of Glyndwr estate before his rebellion.
Links to mapping and other online resources
Data >
Coflein   County HER        
Maps >
OS getamap   Streetmap   Old-Maps   Where's the path  
Data/Maps > 
Magic   Vision of Britain   EarthTools    
Air Photos >
Bing Maps   Google Maps   Getmapping   Flashearth  
Photos >
CastleFacts   Geograph   Flickr   Panoramio  

Sources of information, references and further reading

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.
The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales, the four welsh archaeological trusts and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself. The information within this site is provided freely by me for educational purposes only.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.
Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.
The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown.
Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.
Please help me to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting me if you see errors or if you can add information.
I do acknowledge the help I get.

This record last updated on Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Home | Books | Links | The Fortifications and Castles | Help | Downloads | Author Information | Contact

¤¤¤¤¤