Sycharth

Sycharth Motte and Bailey Castle
Llansilin, Montgomeryshire, Wales
Sycharth from field, showing motte
Sycharth Motte and Bailey Castle
Coordinates	52°49′28″N 3°10′51″W / 52.824498°N 3.180842°W / 52.824498; -3.180842
Site information
Owner	Cadw guardianship
Condition	Grass covered mound with banks and outer bailey.
Site history
Built	Norman Period
Materials	Timber Castle
Demolished	1403
Events	Revolt of Owain Glyndŵr (1400–09)

Sycharth is a motte and bailey castle and town in Llansilin, Powys, Wales. Until 1996 Sycharth was in the historic county of Denbighshire, but was then transferred to the Shire area of Montgomeryshire within Powys. Sycharth Castle was the birthplace of Owain Glyndŵr.

Sycharth sits in the valley of the river Cynllaith, a tributary of the Afon Tanat. The site of Owain Glyndŵr’s castle lies about a kilometer to the west of the boundary between England and Wales with a belt of woodland on the higher ground to the east known as Parc Sycharth. Immediately to the west of the castle is a farm that was the courthouse for the township until the 19th century. The site is on minor road close to the B4580, south of Llansilin and to the S W of Oswestry. The site is in the guardianship of Cadw and there is a small carpark with information boards.

Domesday Book

Mersete Hundred, Shropshire ‘The same Rainald has in Wales 2 commotes 'Chenlie' Cynllaith and 'Derniou' Edeyrnion. From the one he has 60 shilllings by way of ‘ferm’ and from the other from the Welshmen 8 cows’.

The castle was situated in the Welsh territory of Powys Fadog which had formed part of the Welsh Kingdom of Powys. Following the Norman Conquest two of the commotes, Cynllaith and Edeyrnion came under the control of the Normans. There seems little doubt that Sycharth or ‘Cynllaith Owain’ was a Motte-and-bailey built by the Normans. An entry in the Domesday Book, would indicate that this had taken place before 1086. The Normans also built a castle at Rhug that would have been the centre for Edeyrnion.

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