Welsh Journals

L. ALCOCK, M.A., F.S.A., D. J. C. KING, M.C., LL.M., F.S.A., W. G. PUTNAM, B.A., C. J. SPURGEON, B.A. INTRODUCTION At the western extremity of Clun Lordship (fig. i), Castell Bryn Amlwg (or Castle Cefn Fron) crowns a spur of Bettws Hill overlooking the Rhuddwr Brook, which is the boundary with Kerry. A mile north the Clun-Clee ridge- way2 branched southward from the Kerry ridgeway and passed over Bettws Hill to the east of the castle, giving easy access to Clun and beyond. The Kerry ridgeway led into Cedewain and Arwystli in the heart of Wales. The castle (SO 167846), which lies in the parish of Bettws y Crwyn, domi- nates an important junction of political boundaries. To the west and on the Welsh side of the Rhuddwr Brook a small tributary stream separated the lordships of Maelienydd and Kerry. The same watercourses now divide Radnorshire, Montgomeryshire and Shropshire. Although above the 1500 contour, the castle is overlooked by the hills round about. Nevertheless the position is naturally defended by marshy ground to the south and east, and by a steep fall to the brook on the north-west (PI. Ia). The position of the gateway confirms that the approach to the castle was by the gently sloping ridge to the north-east. Geologically the site lies on the old red sandstone which caps the Bettws y Crwyn ridge and gives it better soils than are usually found at this altitude. Outcrops in the neighbourhood of the castle include some strata of hard sandstone from which the castle appears to have been built. The castle has long been regarded as an earthwork3; the poor mortar used generally in its construction has led to the collapse of all standing masonry and the grassing over of the piles of stone and rubble. In addition there has been extensive stone robbing and demolition. The material of the round tower lies in the south-western ditch, not in a mound over its ruins. 1 T. Salt, Trans. Shrops. Arch. Soc., 1888, p. 258. Evidence given in a boundary suit of 1576. Witness remembered double hanging some 60 years before. One man was hanged by Clun officers while, simultaneously, across the brook less than a bowshot away, the officers of Kerry dispatched the other. 2 Miss L. F. Chitty, 'The Clun-Clee Ridgeway' in Culture and Environment, 1963, p. 174. 3 Victoria County History of Shropshire, Vol. I (1908), p. 383, with plan.