Bailey Hill

Bailey Hill is an extensive motte and bailey castle, its massive earthworks scarped from a prominent and steep-sided glacial esker at the northern edge of the medieval borough of Mold. It now lies within a 19th-century municipal park, and this has resulted in considerable alterations to the earthworks, although their overall form is easily discerned.

The monument comprises a very large motte with two baileys in line along the ridge to the S and a probable third to the N. The motte rises up to 12m above the inner bailey to a summit approximately 20m in diameter, now ringed by an intermittent low bank which may conceal the remains of walling.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of medieval defensive and domestic structures and is likely to retain evidence of associated material culture. Mold or Gwyddgrug was an important castle and the administrative centre of a Marcher Lordship, the impressive and complex earthworks reflecting this status. First mentioned in 1146, it probably dates to the early years of the Norman conquest, subsequent documentary references indicating several episodes of destruction and rebuilding. In spite of later landscaping, large areas of the site retain considerable buried archaeological potential, the historic record raising the possibility of multiple periods of timber and possibly masonry construction.