Chirk castle is supposed to have been built in the year 1013, and was an extremely strong fortification. The front is about 250 feet; and two persons abreast may parade the battlements with ease. It was besieged by the parliamentary forces, and considerably battered by the cannon of Cromwell. The repairs cost £80,000.
The park is extensive, and disposed with picturesque effect, the inequalities of its surface, and the declivity of the hill extending behind it and towards the north, having afforded a favourable scope for the arrangement of the trees and plantations. Near New Hall, which is described as an old seat of the Myddeltons, rebuilt many years ago as a farm-house, and surrounded by a moat, at the entrance into the park from Llangollen and Wrexham, stands a pair of iron gates, of the richest, most delicate, and exquisite workmanship, designed and executed by a common blacksmith.
The summit of the castle commands a wide expanse of great beauty and magnificence, offering to the naked eye an uninterrupted view into seventeen different counties. The river Ceiriog runs on the west side of the castle, through a deep and picturesque valley, remarkable in history as the scene of a sanguinary conflict in 1165, between the forces under Henry the Second and those of the Welsh under their brave Prince Owen Gwynedd, when the latter obtained a decisive victory, and compelled the Saxon monarch to seek safety in a retreat to his own territories.
In this neighbourhood are many ancient fortifications, the most noticeable of which is part of Offa’s dyke, thrown up as the boundary between the ancient Britons and the Saxons in 763.
This fine estate has been in possession of the Myddelton family since the beginning of the seventeenth century; the present possessor is Colonel Robert Myddelton Biddulph, Lord Lieutenant of Denbighshire, paternally descended from the Biddulphs of Ledbury, in Herefordshire.
One mile below the village of Chirk is also
the elegant seat of Lord Dungannon. It is delightfully situated on an elevation, and surrounded by extensive and beautiful plantations.
This beautiful village is situated on the turnpike-road, about equidistant between Caernarvon and Pwllheli. It has a remarkably fine gothic church, the tower of which rises very beautifully from among a verdant cluster of noble trees.