Mold Castle

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View from the castle hill to the Gorsedd stone circle

Mold Castle ( Welsh Bryn y Beili ) is a former castle in Flintshire in Wales . The castle site, protected as a Scheduled Monument , is located opposite the parish church of St Mary's in the middle of the town of Mold .

history

The castle was probably built around 1140 by the Anglo-Norman knight Robert de Montalt , and was first mentioned in 1146. According to other sources, the castle was built around 1093. The castle was called Montalt , which was a corruption of the old French mont haut for high hills. Probably the name Mold originated from this .

Owain Gwynedd , King of Gwynedd , captured the castle as early as 1147 . During his campaign in 1165 , the English King Henry II recaptured the castle and had it expanded until 1167. A stone palace was probably built around this time . In 1199 or 1201 the castle of Llywelyn from Iorwerth was conquered by Gwynedd. In 1241 his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn had to give the castle back to the Lords de Montalt, but in 1245 he was able to recapture it. During Edward I's first campaign to conquer Wales , the English re-conquered the castle in 1277, but the building of the new royal castle, Flint Castle , made it less important. During the Welsh Revolt of 1294 , it was briefly conquered by the Welsh. After the death of the last Baron de Montalt in 1329, the castle was no longer used and fell into disrepair. It was mentioned for the last time in 1421. Around this time, the settlement finally called Mold was built around the former castle, which was given its own parish church around 1485.

In 1792 the castle site was converted into a garden. A bowling green was created on the grounds of the outer bailey. In 1923 the gardens served as the venue for the Welsh Eisteddfod , for which a Gorsedd stone circle was built on the grounds of the outer bailey. Today the castle site serves as a public park and is freely accessible.

investment

The castle site is a good example of a Norman motte-and-bailey complex. It consists of a mighty cone-shaped moth erected over a natural hill. The castle hill, which is now overgrown with trees and bushes, has a diameter of up to 62 m at the base and is still up to 14 m high. On the summit plateau, which is around 20 m in diameter, there are small remains of masonry. To the south of the castle hill was the rectangular outer bailey, in front of which another outer part was located. Of the two outer castles, however, only small remains of the ramparts and moats can be seen.

Web links

Commons : Mold Castle  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ancient Monuments: The Bailey Hill, Mold. Retrieved October 4, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Visitor UK: Timeline History of Mold. Retrieved October 4, 2014 .
  3. ^ Michael Prestwich: Edward I. University of California Press, Berkeley 1988. ISBN 978-0-520-06266-5 , p. 220
  4. ^ Adrian Pettifer: Welsh Castles. A Guide by Counties. Boydell, Woodbridge 2000, ISBN 978-0-85115-778-8 , p. 76

Coordinates: 53 ° 10 ′ 13.4 "  N , 3 ° 8 ′ 39.3"  W.