Hen Caerwys
Opening Times
All year round from dawn until dusk each day, but may have to be closed on some days to allow woodland management works to take place.
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Contact Mike Owens
Bron Fadog
Bryn Sion Hill,
Afonwen,
Mold,
CH7 5UL
Tel: 01352 720184
Mobile: 07912 938848
The remains of banks, walls and house sites within the woodlands of Coed y Marian and Coed Gerddi-gleision were first reported by W.J. Hemp in 1960. In consultation with the well-known local historian Canon Ellis Davies the site was named 'Hen Caerwys'.
Hen Caerwys is believed to have been abandoned in the mid-15th Century and may have been occupied throughout the medieval period. The earthworks may also incorporate features that date back to the prehistoric period.
Hen Caerwys was fully surveyed for the first time in 1993, revealing two discrete groups of house sites with associated enclosures and network of fields and access ways. This apparently contemporary system is overlain by a complex of small mounds and hollows believed to be associated with piecemeal mineral exploration in the late 18th/19th Centuries. A number of quarries of similar date are potentially related to episodes of house building.
Hen Caerwys remained as open, common land until 1850 when it was subject of a parliamentary enclosure award. This episode in the history of the site is witnessed by the straight, drystone wall-bounded public highway. The largest of the quarries lying immediately north-west of the public highway may have provided the stone used to construct these drystone walls.
Today, four-fifths of the surviving earthworks at Hen Caerwys lie beneath mature broadleaved woodland and are being actively managed by the owner to protect both the archaeological and wildlife interests of the site and to provide a sustainable source of timber for firewood and other uses.
The trail at Hen Caerwys is usually open free-of-charge every day of the year during daylight hours, but may occasionally have to be closed for the safety of the public when woodland management works are in progress.
Hen Caerwys is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act, 1979. Damage or disturbance - including excavation, tipping and metal detecting - is prohibited.