Holt Castle

Holt Castle stands on a sandstone promontory beside the River Dee in the village of Holt, Wrexham County Borough. Built from local stone in the 13th century, it was a five-towered fortress known as Castrum Leonis because a lion motif marked its main gate. Edward I began the castle after the invasion of North Wales in 1277, and it was completed by 1311 under John de Warrene. The castle had a pentagonal shape with towers at each corner, a stepped ramp, a barbican, inner ward, postern gate and curtain walls. A water-filled moat fed from the river surrounded the site. Holt Castle played a key role in the First English Civil War. Royalists held it until 1643, when Parliamentarians captured it, only for the Royalists to retake it in 1644. After a nine-month siege in 1646–47, the Royalist governor Sir Richard Lloyd surrendered to Thomas Mytton. Thirteen Parliamentarian prisoners were killed and their bodies thrown into the moat. In 1647 the castle was slighted by order of Parliament, and later Sir Thomas Grosvenor removed much of its stone to rebuild Eaton Hall. Today only the sandstone base and scattered masonry remain. Visitors can see the lower walls of the inner keep, the postern gate, a buttress, a chute exit and the foundations of the outer gate’s square tower. Restoration work removed vegetation and repaired surviving stonework, while archaeological surveys have uncovered further details of the site’s layout. The ruins overlook the River Dee and the village of Holt, offering a quiet place to imagine the castle’s past.