The Field of Corpses

Cae Gerail and the Tan-yr-Ogo Pass

There is an area to the west of the Castle, in the fields that separate the estate from Llanddulas that was once known as’ Cae Gerail ‘or’ field of corpses'.

Embedded in the walls of Tan-yr-Ogo lodge are four tablets on which are recorded early English battles which took place in the narrow defile of Cefn Ogo. The Tablets were erected by Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh during the 1820s but are now severely eroded and barely legible. The inscriptions were noted down some time ago:

TABLET I.

Prior to the Norman conquest, Harold in his attempt to subject this part of the Principality was encountered by Gruffydd ap Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, on the plain near Cefn Ogo and after a sanguinary battle, in which he was defeated and a considerable number of his men slain, was driven back to Rhuddlan Castle.

TABLET II.

In the reign of William the Conqueror, Hugh Lupus, on his march to invade Anglesey, passing through the defile of Cefn Ogo, was attacked by armed band of Welshmen, which had been posted there to intercept his progress, and of which, after a protracted battle, eleven hundred were left dead on the spot.

TABLET III.

In the reign of Henry II, Owen Gwynedd, Prince of North Wales on retreat from Flintshire, fortified himself in this pass, where he gave battle to the forces of that monarch. After having secured this important post, he retreated to Pen y Parc, in the adjoining parish, where he made a stand against the English forces, and effectually checked the further invasion of his domains.

TABLET IV

Near this pass Richard II whom Percy, Earl of Northumberland, under pretence of an amicable interview with Bolingbroke, had inveigled from Aberconway Castle, after his return from Ireland was surrounded by a military band bearing the Northumberland banner and conducted to Flint Castle where he was treacherously betrayed by the Earl into the power of the usurper. It has justly been remarked that on no spot in the Principality has more blood been shed than in Cefn Ogo.