More information : (SJ 43465084) Castle (NR) (Site of) (NAT)
(SJ 43345078) Earthworks (NR) (1).
Shotlack was a Welsh frontier fortress forming an important link in the chain of Cheshire castles between Alford and Malpas. Lord Dudley claimed the right in 15 Hen VII to maintain this castle fortified, ditched and crenellated. The earthworks were very strong, occupying an important pass where the present road to Chester crosses a deep ravine. On the W side of the road is a very early circular mound 20' high, on the top of which the Normans placed their keep. On the E side of the road is another raised kite-shaped platform also of ancient formation. No vestiges of masonry now remain (2).
Scheduled (3).
Published survey (1:2500) correct (4).
1. SJ 43345078. A well preserved motte, situated on the edge of a steep ravine. The mound rises 4.0 m above the bottom of the ditch, which has a counterscarp bank.
2. SJ 43465084. A moated enclosure, D-shaped in plan measuring internally 70 m across the chord and 78 m transversely. It is surrounded by a strong ditch, 2.7 m deep in places, now dry but originally waterfilled by damming the S arm through which a stream flows. The modern road now overlies the dam. The enclosure is undoubtedly the site of the fortified manor-house described by Mackenzie, but there are no structural remains. Published survey (1:2500) correct (5).
Aerial observation of the moated earthwork shows it to have been divided by a curving ditch running parallel to the moat ditch on its northern side, effectively separating a southern, almost circular mound from a northern crescent-shaped one. The whole complex resembles a very small version of Shotwick Castle in the Wirral. The circular mound has a small oval enclosure bounded by a low bank and shallow ditch atop it, of unknown function (6).
Listed by Cathcart King (7).
The castle at Shocklach is visible as earthworks on lidar imagery and appears extant on the latest 2013 vertical aerial photography. The site was mapped as part of the Cheshire National Mapping Programme project.
The western motte, visible as a 48m diameter mound surrounded by a ditch and counterscarp bank on lidar digital terrain model beneath tree cover, is located to the immediate south of a natural ravine and the west of the modern road.
The eastern part of the complex consists of a larger enclosure surrounded by a broad moat fed by widened channels to south-east and east. The curving ditch identified by Authority 6 appears to be shallower division of the bailey, potentially separating an irregular motte mound on the south-eastern part of the castle from the rest of the bailey to the north. This may actually form a motte and bailey in its own right, separate to the large motte to the west. Rather than a single motte and bailey separated by the modern road, this may potentially represent two different phases of castle building or even two separate castles entirely (8-10). |