Ewloe Castle - History

History

Ewloe Castle is a relic of the brief triumph that the Welsh prince Llywelyn the Last had over the Anglo-Norman Marcher Lords. It followed his successful recapture of this part of Wales after the Norman invasion of Gwynedd in the late 11th century. North east Wales, which had been fought over by the Princes of Gwynedd and the Earls of Chester for more than 150 years, was now at relative peace.

The present ruins are those of the final stone fortification built by Llywelyn the Last. Its construction, which began in 1257, incorporated previous work undertaken by the earlier Welsh leaders, Owain Gwynedd and Llywelyn the Great. The fortified site had been established near to where Welsh forces had triumphed over the English forces of Henry II at the Battle of Ewloe (Welsh: Brwydr Cwnsyllt) in 1157.

In July 1277, at the outbreak of the Welsh Wars, Edward I left Chester to march up the west coast of the Dee Estuary. After an advanced base was established at Flint (a day's travel from Chester), building work immediately began on Flint Castle. Ewloe Castle is not mentioned in the 1277 invasion chronicles suggesting Welsh forces had abandoned the area and retreated to a stronger defensive position along the Clwydian Hills further to the west.

As Edward I's castles at Flint and Rhuddlan could be provisioned by sea, Ewloe was never used by the English Crown.

The only contemporary reference to the Ewloe Castle is in the Chester Plea Rolls which mentions a report sent to Edward II in 1311. The Justice of Chester wrote to the King regarding the history of the manor at Ewloe from the middle of the 12th century. The rolls records that by 1257 Llywelyn the Last had regained Ewloe from the English and built a castle in the wood; noting in 1311 that much of the castle was still standing.

By the late medieval period, the site was in ruins. Much of the castle's stone from its curtain walls and keep was taken away and used in later buildings around Flint, Mold and Connah's Quay.