North Hill (Formerly Gibbet Hill)

From here you can look towards North Hill, the site of the gibbet, overlooking the town of Swansea.

Gibbet Hill was the site of Swansea’s place of execution, for hangings. Now called North Hill, until the 19^th century the name Gibbet Hill was used, while Gallows Road, now known as North Hill Road, led to the gibbet from the town. The exact position of the medieval gibbet – or gallows – is uncertain, but most likely it stood on the edge of the hill, facing the town, so standing out against the sky line when viewed from Swansea beneath. This position on the edge of the town was typical for medieval places of execution and judgement, and made a hanging all the more a public spectacle as prisoners were led from the prison in the Castle through the streets to Gibbet Hill. 

On an autumn day in the year 1290, William Cragh was hanged on Gibbet Hill by William de Briouze, the Anglo-Norman lord of Gower. Cragh was hanged as a rebel and criminal, together with another Welshman, Trahaearn ap Hywel. In an act of particular cruelty, Lord William forced Cragh’s own friends and family to perform the hanging. Cragh was lifted onto the gibbet first, and then Trahaearn was pulled up by a rope slung over the crossbeam. But one medieval witness at the execution tells us that Trahaearn was ‘big and heavy’, and this caused the gibbet to break. Cragh and Trahaearn were hanged for a second time and seemed to be dead. But was that really the case?