GATEHOUSE
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 

Rhuddlan Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Rothelan; Ruthlan; Rughlan; Rhudland

In the community of Rhuddlan.
In the historic county of Flintshire.
Modern authority of Denbighshire.
Preserved county of Clwyd.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ02467790
Latitude 53.28916° Longitude -3.46462°

Rhuddlan Castle has been described as a certain Masonry Castle.

There are major building remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Substantial remains of a masonry castle established with borough in 1277, replacing earlier castle site at Twt Hill; castle demolished 1648. The castle is based on a quadrilateral, towered inner court, c.43m square, within a roughly concentric outer enclosure, the whole bounded by a broad stone-revetted moat, except where it rests on the river bank on the SW. Associated with town defences to the NW and possible Edwardian defences to the SE. (Coflein)

Begun in 1277, this was the second of King Edward I's great Welsh fortifications. A protected river dock forms one side of the defences of this concentrically planned castle, dominated by a distinctive diamond-shaped inner ward. The castle was constructed between 1277-82 and at the same time the river was straightened and dredged to improve navigation. The castle plan is concentric based on a quadrilateral, towered inner court, c.43m square, with twin-tower gatehouses on opposite corners, within a roughly concentric outer enclosure, the whole bounded by a broad stone-revetted moat, except where it rests on the river bank on the SW. The outer ward, which is flanked by small square towers and turrets, is octagonal in shape except where it borders the river. Here it extends down the slope to enclose a watergate and dock for ships. The walls of the outer ward have been destroyed but the moat can still be traced on the side away from the river. (Derived from Jeff Spencer and Coflein)

Building of the castle at Rhuddlan followed the capture of the borough (originally founded c1073) by Edward I in 1277. Both the town and its existing castle were re-sited, and newly planned as an integral development. Work on the castle began in 1277, and continued until the mid 1280's, with alterations carried out in the early C14. The chief master mason was James of Saint George, and some early C14 work was carried out by Richard of Chester. The castle surrendered to Parliament in 1646, and was slighted in 1648.
Concentric plan with inner and outer wards. The outer ward is enclosed by a wide dry moat, and is protected to the S by a river wall and tower. The moat was originally crossed at two points - at the Town Gate (the present entrance from Castle Street), and at the SE at the Priory Gate (converted into a turret in 1300). The sides of the moat were revetted in stone, most of which survives. The outer curtain wall is fragmentary, but remains of turrets containing steps leading down to former sallyports in the moat survive. The ward slopes down to the river to the SW, and at its furthest point is the square, 4-storeyed Gillot's Tower, with a postern alongside it. The inner ward is of lozenge plan, and has a single circular tower at the N and S corners, and double-towered gatehouses at the E and W angles. Curtain walls survive to the level of the wall walks between the towers, and have embrasured slits at ground level. The parapets have largely disappeared, but a fragment of battlement survives in the NE wall, and the SW and SE walls retain traces of central corbelled turrets. The towers were 4 storeyed, and the S tower, and the W gatehouse towers survive almost to their full height. E gatehouse has portcullis grooves and gate chases. The original system of loopholes survives in its N guardroom, interrupted to the S by the insertion of a fireplace at the beginning of the C14. Inside the ward, the domestic buildings were of timber, and have all been lost. (Listed Building Report)
Comments

Some of the expense of building Rhuddlan lay in the turning of the Afon Clwyd in to a channel navigable by sea going vessels. It remains an open question as to the reason for building the Edwardian castle and town next to the Norman Castle and town rather than, the more usual practice of rebuilding the exisiting sites. Edward and his architects were experimenting in many ways in Wales, Rhuddlan may have been intended as a Regional capital although this intent was not carried through after Caernarfon became the caput of North Wales.
Links to archaeological and architectural databases, mapping and other online resources

Data >
Coflein   County HER   Scheduling   Listing    
Maps >
Streetmap   NLS maps   Where's the path   Old-Maps      
Data/Maps > 
Magic   Historic Wales   V. O. B.   Geology   LIDAR  
Air Photos > 
Bing Maps   Google Maps   Getmapping   ZoomEarth      
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. It may also contain Designated Historic Asset Descriptive Information from The Welsh Historic Environment Service (Cadw), licensed under the Open Government Licence. 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.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely 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.
Lidar coverage in the UK is not complete. The button above will give an idea of the area of coverage. Higher resolution lidar images in both DSM and DTM form may be available from Lle A geo-Portal for Wales (click the preview tag to bring up a map and then select format byclicking on the small blue diamond in the top right corner of the map.)
Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.
*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of the described site.

This record last updated 02/07/2017 08:12:38


¤¤¤¤¤