Ewloe Castle

Ewloe Castle stands on a steep promontory in Wepre Woods, near the village of Ewloe in Flintshire. Built by the Princes of Gwynedd, it used local sandstone and was one of the last native Welsh castles. The site overlooks where two streams meet, with higher ground to the south. It sits within Tegeingl, a historic Welsh cantref near the Wales–England border. The castle commands a strategic position along the Chester road. Its ruins remain surrounded by dense forest, adding to the sense of isolation. The castle combines motte-and-bailey and enclosure styles, with an asymmetrical curtain wall enclosing two courtyards. A rock-cut neck ditch defends the southern approach, and a D-shaped tower known as the ‘Welsh keep’ rises on a stone outcrop. The tower’s walls are two metres thick at the base and rise to eleven metres. It has arrowslits, a parapet, and a first-floor hall above a ground-floor chamber. Llywelyn the Great built a similar tower at Castell y Bere in the 1220s. Visitors walk through Wepre Woods along footpaths to reach the castle ruins. The inner ward contains the D-shaped tower, while the outer ward is enclosed by two separate wall sections meeting at a circular tower. No gateways connect the wards, and access was once via wooden ramps. The outer ward had wooden buildings, and an external rampart stands on higher ground to the south. The site remains protected and cared for by Cadw, offering a quiet glimpse into 13th-century Welsh military architecture.