The Barony of Clun, called also the Honour and the Hundred, was more extensive than the forest, and included lands of a more settled character to the east and south. Obley, Pentrehodre, Hobendrid, Hobbaris, Larkenhope, Eileston, and Manulton, were members of the manor of Clun, which was co-extensive with the Hundred; and in the “Welshery” attached to it were the hamlets of Aderdely and Bickton, Hodicote, and Newcastle. It appears, in the twelfth century, to have contained five vills and sub-manors, the borough town of Clun, and the manor of Tempsett. Clun was also an ecclesiastical centre. Its noble parish church of St. George was set over the chapels of St. Thomas of Clun, St. Mary of Waterden, St. Swithun of Clunbury, St. Mary of Clunton, St. Mary of Opperton, and the chapels of Edgton and Sibdon. The whole were attached to the great abbey of Wenlock. Many of these chapelries have become independent parishes, and the Hundred of Clun has disappeared as a county division, being absorbed in that of Purslow. In 1837, 8,600 acres of the old forest were enclosed by Act of Parliament, and in 1869, 1700 more.

About a furlong below the point at which the collective waters from the forest combine to form the Clun, that stream, there of considerable volume, makes a sharp and sudden bend, in the hollow of which, upon its left or convex bank, is placed the castle. The space thus partially enclosed and protected by the river is about 600 yards in length, and is occupied by a cluster of knolls or tumps of a soft, friable rock, which has been carved and scarped for the purposes of defence, so as to present, with its decomposed and grass-grown surface, much of an artificial aspect. Amongst these knolls stands out one higher and of even a more artificial appearance than the rest. It forms a conical mound, about 40 yards in diameter at its table top, with very steep sides, and in height above its surrounding ditch about 60 feet; and the ditch, again, is about 30 feet above the bed of the river. The ditch covers the mound upon its southern and eastern sides, but to the north and west the slope descends direct to the river level, presenting a very formidable appearance. The more exposed part is further protected by three works in earth, beyond the ditch; of which the larger, to the south-west, is of irregular figure, and about 40 yards deep by 70 yards broad, having four irregular sides, of which the inner is concave, and forms the counterscarp of the main ditch. Towards the river this platform is scarped towards the mound and the adjacent platform; its protection is a ditch, about 7 yards deep by 16 to 18 yards broad. The top is level, save that along the edges of the three outer sides is a narrow bank—a sort of parapet, on which was probably a stockade. At one point, where the platform approaches the mound, is a small spur, as though the ruin of the pier of a bridge, and which was evidently the main entrance to the keep or principal mound. The road to this bridge ascended the platform from the village on the south.

To the east of this is a second platform, of the same height, and about 14 yards deep by 30 yards broad, its larger face being concave, and applied to the main ditch. Its top is level, and has no trace of bank or parapet.

The third earthwork, of no great size, stands to the east of the keep mound, and abuts upon its ditch to the west, and on the river to the north. These two sides are prolonged, and the fork or hollow angle between them is occupied by a depression, formerly a large pool, having a sluice-gate towards the river. Between the bank of this pool and the southern platform is a ditch, which seems to have been used as a hollow way leading to the river front of the mound.

Between the mound and west platform and the river are two lunated patches of meadow about 90 yards deep, the one 70 yards and the other 140 yards long; they were probably employed as a safe pasture in ordinary times for the garrison cattle, which, in case of attack, could readily be taken up the platforms, or driven along the castle ditches into the precincts of the town.

Such are the earthworks as they are now seen, and in general features much, no doubt, as they were seen when the Norman Picot took possession of his dangerous grant. They belong to the class known as burhs, or moated mounds, and date from the ninth or tenth century. By whom they were thrown up, or, rather, carved out, is unknown; but it may safely be asserted that they represent the chief residence of one of those Englishmen who invaded and settled upon the Welsh territory, and whose duty it was to defend the western and often-attacked border of the Mercian kingdom. The occupant of such a position must have been a bold and powerful leader; though whether he lived before or after the formation of Offa’s Dyke is doubtful. Possibly a careful examination of the Saeson bank ridge, where it is crossed by the Dyke, might throw a light upon this point, and the researches should extend to Crugyn or Castle Hill, on Bishop’s Castle racecourse, to Bishop’s Moat, Caer-din, Tomen, Castell-cefn-fron or Bryn Amlwg, and some other camps and tumuli on each side the border. Besides these are others, both camps and tumuli, and a remarkable upright stone or maenhir within the forest, all, no doubt, of British date. It must be borne in mind that Clun, though an exposed part of the Mercian territory, was covered to the north-west and north by the English settlements along the Upper Severn, of which there are ample traces from Kerry to Welshpool, on both sides of the Dyke. Looking at the extension of the barony of Clun, westward of the Dyke, to a natural boundary, it seems probable that the barony was founded when the Dyke was no longer the Mercian border, and the English had pushed their settlements up the valley of the Severn. This also would be more consistent with the figure of the earthworks of Clun and of the adjacent district, which resemble those thrown up by Æthelflæda and Edward the Elder early in the tenth century, and of which Wigmore is a recorded example.