Castle Caereinion

Helen Burnham The motte is the grassy mound in the northern corner of the churchyard, standing up to 3m high and roughly 20m across; there is a slight depression to the south marking the probable line of the original ditch. The raised north-east sides of the churchyard may indicate the position of bailey banks, as may the mounds surrounding some of the yews on the south-west where the original entrance probably lay, and south-east where the churchyard has been since extended. The castle lies at an important watershed between the Sylfaen Brook and the Banwy valley, on the route west from Welshpool now used by the A458. It was built by Madog ap Maredudd of Powys in 1156, and refurbished in 1166 by Owain Gwynedd and the Lord Rhys, after they evicted Madog's nephew Owain Cyfeiliog for swearing allegiance to the English. Owain destroyed the castle shortly afterwards with a Norman force, and nothing further is heard of it.

 

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