Welcome to our Cache at Aberlleiniog Castle, located in lovely woodland in the area of Llangoed village. Ample free parking in the public car park (N 53° 17.728' W 004° 05.182') at the bottom of the village, from here you can follow the sign-posted paths to the castle where GZ is. GPS mapping and signposts will lead you the GZ, this map may be handy if you wanted to make a longer circular walk http://www.aberlleiniogcastle.com/footpaths-8.aspx. The cache, with its log book, is a small clip top box in a camo bag, suitable for small swaps, TBs and trinkets. Please respect the structure and the work of the restoration team that have done a fantastic job in stabilizing the walls by not dismantling them and replace the cache as you found it.
About Aberlleiniog Castle
Castell Aberlleiniog is a large earthen castle raised by Earl Hugh of Chester in the 1080s during one of several attempts to secure Norman control of Gwynedd during the late eleventh century. The castle is the only certain evidence of a Norman foothold on Anglesey but is sufficiently substantial to suggest that this was an attempt at consolidation rather than a campaign base. Domesday Book identifies that Robert of Rhuddlan, Earl Hugh’s military commander, held ‘North Wales’ directly from King William at the fee-farm rent of £40. In this context we find that in 1093 Earl Hugh was able to redirect the revenues of two Anglesey manors and the profits of fishing rights in the Straits to the building programme at St. Werburgh’s Abbey in Chester. During this period Gruffudd ap Cyan, a legitimate claimant for the throne of Gwynedd, pursued his entitlement and, in the process, attacked and burnt Aberlleiniog. In 1098 a strong Norman force from Chester and Shrewsbury, once again, occupied Anglesey but on this occasion the fortuitous intervention of Magnus Barelegs and his fleet of longships turned the tide against the Normans who withdrew east across the River Conwy. These events, which ultimately determined the fate of a hard pressed Gwynedd, were played out, in large part, along the shoreline of the Aberlleiniog-Trecastell area.
Although Aberlleiniog and Trecastell, physically divided by a steep-sided ravine of the Afon Lleiniog, are generally considered to be two separate entities, it would seem reasonable that the township or manor of Trecastell takes its name from the earthwork and possibly incorporates it. Following the Norman withdrawal the land would have come within the king, Gruffudd ap Cynan’s, interest. During the early thirteenth century, several townships in the king’s possession were granted to the heirs of Ednyfed Fychan, Llywelyn ap Iorwerth’s steward and principal administrator. Trecastell was one of these grants, whereby the land was held in exceptionally free tenure, requiring only suit of court and an obligation on a member of the Trecastell family to go to the lord’s war, at his own cost within the Marches of Wales and at the lord’s cost outside it. Exceptionally, Trecastell was granted the privilege of holding its own court, which the tenants were required to attend, every three weeks.
Goronwy, son of Ednyfed Fychan, held Trecastell, Penmynydd and Erddreiniog, all in the commote of Dindaethwy, in the thirteenth century. His grandson, Goronwy ap Tudur similarly held those townships, together with the township of Tregaian. These passed to Tudur Fychan who is thought to have maintained Trecastell as his principal residence and he was followed by Ednyfed Fychan ap Tudur in the later fourteenth century. Ednyfed’s daughter, Angharad, heiress of Trecastell married Ieuan ap Adda ap Iorwerth Du of Pengwern in the late fourteenth century and their son Ieuan Fychan, married another Angharad, the daughter of Hywel ap Tudur. This Angharad, an heiress of Mostyn, brought Trecastell into the Mostyn dynasty in the first half of the fifteenth century.
Trecastell farmhouse stands close to the shoreline, towards the southern end of the character area. The house was rebuilt in more recent times but a sixteenth-century depressed-arched fireplace has survived.
The castle of Aberlleiniog stood across the Lleiniog ravine, 3.2km north of Beaumaris. The earthwork was 560 years old at the outbreak of civil war, yet it still had a role to play. The masonry walls and circular corner towers are of uncertain age but were probably in place by the sixteenth century when Thomas Cheadle took it upon himself to fortify the site. Cheadle had become deputy constable of Beaumaris Castle, effectively the mayor, and subsequently sheriff, in 1642. He was not popular and many local people took the view that his operations at Aberlleiniog were more to do with local politics than with the defence of the island. The Bulkeley faction’s response was to dig earthwork defences on the hill of Bryn Britain on the south side of the town, overlooking the harbour. Beaumaris castle, itself, was in a poor state of readiness.
Towards the end of the first Civil War, Cheadle appears to have gone over to the Parliamentary side. Pennant, quoting a, now lost, Plas Gwyn manuscript, believed that Sir Thomas Cheadle had, in 1645-6, held Aberlleiniog for Parliament. Chester had surrendered and the way lay open to north Wales. A number of prominent men in the locality attempted to make terms. In June 1649 a Captain Rich, on the Rebecca in Fryars’ Road, landed men and munitions at night, at Lleiniog. The following week Parliamentary Commissioners were in Beaumaris to secure terms but sensed hostility and returned to Lady Cheadle’s House and fort there. An agreement was reached, however, that same day.
The Cheadles had several houses of which Lleiniog was one. In the later seventeenth century, Lleiniog passed to William Bold of Tre’r Ddol by purchase. In the first half of the eighteenth century Lleiniog was in the hand of the Hughes family, later by Rowland Williams and in the 1780s, in the hand of the Revd. Edward Hughes. Lleiniog lands occupied around 100 acres and carried the highest assessment for land tax in this character area, with only Tros yr Afon and Trecastell coming close. Lord Dinorben, son of the Revd. Hughes, held the property in the early nineteenth century. Tros yr Afon was in the hand of Rowland Hughes in the third quarter of the eighteenth century and was acquired by Henry Paget, Earl of Uxbridge, in the 1780s.
Natural History
Laterly the castle has been acquired by Menter Mon and CADW , the castle has had extensive restoration, and the area has benefited from footpath development and reforestation making it a great place for wildlife and for taking a stroll. In season; cherries, plums, crab apples rowan berries and elder flowers and berries can be found. Watch out for red squirrels and buzzards by day. Greater horseshoe bats, tawny and barn owls at dusk and, if you are very lucky otters and kingfishers have been seen in the Lleiniog
Links of interest:
http://www.aberlleiniogcastle.com/home-1.aspx
http://www.aberlleiniogcastle.com/archaeology-10.aspx
http://www.aberlleiniogcastle.com/history-11.aspx
http://www.aberlleiniogcastle.com/restoration-9.aspx
Gratz to Ecobake for the FTF 03/10/2015