From all this it may be inferred that there was a castle here which Prince Llewelyn destroyed, and which Robert de Montalt undertook not to rebuild. Such promises went for as little then as between nations at the present day, and the castle that the Welsh took 10 Ed. II. 1282, was of course built or restored during that period. If Llewelyn had found a keep of anything at all approaching in substance to the present he could scarcely have destroyed it; nor does it seem probable, from the internal evidence of the building, that the keep now standing was the work taken by the Welsh, 10 Ed. I. Its mouldings and the plan of its upper floor point to a rather later date; and probably it was the work of the last Baron de Montalt, between 1297 and 1329. Cylindrical keep towers, of a pattern not unlike that of Hawarden, though usually, as at Courcy, on a much larger scale, were in use in France in the earlier part of the thirteenth century; and although the unusual thickness of the walls in the present example might be thought more in keeping with the Norman period, the general details, the polygonal mural gallery and interior, and the entrance, evidently parts of the original work, are very decidedly Edwardian.
Hawarden was finally dismantled by order of parliament, in the time of the Commonwealth, and the keep much shattered by a mine, sprung probably under the doorway. It so remained until very recently, when it was restored by Sir Stephen Glynne, the present owner, under the advice of Mr. Shaw, of Chester. The task was one of exceeding delicacy, but it has been executed with marvellous skill and complete success, so far as the work has proceeded. Enough remained of each part to give a clue for its reproduction, and thus the gateway, portcullis chamber, much of the well staircase, most of the chapel, and part of the great mural gallery have been restored just as they must have been left by the original builder. At the same time the stone employed and the mode of dressing it, will always indicate to the skilled observer which parts of the work have been replaced.
The present access to the rampart is an addition in brick of the last century, and will probably in due time be removed. The view thence is extensive, having in the foreground the park, which for wildness and sylvan beauty may well compare with any ground even on the Welsh border; and beyond is the broad and fertile plain of Cheshire and
