CastleFlintshireCadw4.4
Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.
The Trust's page does not say how parking is charged.
Cadw names a public car park in the village just off the High Street. Flintshire County Council's list of charging car parks does not include Caergwrle and reviewers say it is free, but no official statement says so, so the status is recorded as unknown. From the car park walk along the High Street to the junction of Wrexham Road and Castle Street by the Spar and war memorial, crossing the busy main road with care, where the waymarked path climbs steeply through the woods to the castle in five to eight minutes; keep right after the steps.
Driving pin: the High Street car park, 298 m from Cadw's marker on the hilltop; Cadw's own what3words marks the path's start at the junction by Ye Olde Castle Inn. By road: the entrance is off the A541 in the village. By rail: Caergwrle station, a quarter of a mile from the castle entrance. National Cycle Network routes 5 and 568 pass 13.4 km away.
Castell Caergwrle, Caergwrle Castle, was the last castle to be built by a native Welsh prince: Dafydd ap Gruffudd, raised it between 1278 and 1282 on the summit of a steep wooded hill above the village, on lands given to him by Edward I and taken from Powys. It was from here that Dafydd launched his attack on the English garrison at Hawarden in 1282, sparking Edward's second Welsh campaign; work went on under the Crown, but the castle was probably still incomplete when it was abandoned after a fire, and it was ruinous by 1335. Reviewers find a quiet, atmospheric ruin hidden in woodland, with information boards showing how it looked and views over the Alyn valley; the waymarked path from the village junction by the war memorial is a short, steep climb of five to eight minutes. Dogs on short leads may explore the ground level, and Transport for Wales's Caergwrle walking route from the station climbs to the castle.
Open any reasonable time in daylight.
Free entry
Open all year during reasonable daylight hours; closed 24, 25 and 26 December and 1 January. No admission charge. Hope Community Council's 2021 storm-closure notice is out of date; Cadw's page carries no closure. Cadw may close monuments at short notice in extreme weather.
Terrain level 3, moderate: a steep walk through the lower wooded area, uneven and muddy in places, then grass on the hilltop; two sets of steps at the monument, the left set with a handrail; the site is sloped, with a drop beyond the rear ruined wall. No toilets, cafe or shop. Drones are not permitted.
Dogs: Dogs on short leads are welcome on the ground level of the castle, which is the hilltop enclosure and ruins.
Photo: The ruined walls of Caergwrle Castle on its grassy hilltop, looking out over the Alyn valley under a pale blue sky. Clint Heacock, CC BY-SA 3.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caergwrle_Castle_2.JPG. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
No reviews yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to share your experience!
From Caergwrle station along the A550 and Crossways into the village, mostly on pavements; at the junction by the Spar a right turn climbs steeply to the castle, short and worth the effort, looping round the top and returning the same way; then past the High Street car park and down the North Wales link path over the packhorse bridge back to the station. Free; GPX and Go Jauntly links on the page.
