DYSERTH (DISERTH), a parish, partly within the limits of the borough of RHUDDLAN, partly in the hundred of RHUDDLAN, and partly in the hundred of FRESTATYN, county of FLINT, NORTH WALES, 2 miles (E.N.E.) from Rhuddlan, containing 714 inhabitants. This place was anciently distinguished for its castle; of which mention occurs in various records, under the several appellations of Din Colyn, Castell y Failon, and Castell Gerri. Of its original foundation nothing certain is known: it was probably of Welsh origin, and is supposed to have formed the last of a chain of British posts on the Clwydian hills. This castle was fortified by Henry III., about the year 1241; but, within less than twenty years after, it was razed to the ground, together with the castle of Deganwy, by Llewelyn ab Grufydd. During the siege of this place, Einon, son of Ririd Vlaidd, was slain, and a cross was erected to his memory on the spot, the shaft of which, ornamented with rude sculpture, was subsequently made to form part of a stile into the churchyard. The parish is bounded on the north-west by the Irish sea; and the turnpike road from Holywell, through Newmarket, to Rhuddlan, passes through the village. In a part of the parish, included in the Bishop of St. Asaph's manor of Rhuddlan, is an extensive lead mine, which is worked by the Talar GAch Company, and of the produce of which the Bishop of St. Asaph receives the usual proportion, as lord of the manor. A part of the mine also extends into the parish of Meliden, and the produce, in the procuring of which two hundred persons on an average are employed, is shipped off from Rhuddlan to Flint, where it is principally smelted. This parish is the head of an archdeaconry, now annexed to the bishoprick of St. Asaph; and in the village was once an ancient mansion, in which the archdeacons formerly, and some of the bishops subsequently, resided, of which latter Bishop Parry died here in 1623. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese of St. Asaph, and in the patronage of the Bishop, as archdeacon, who, as such, is also impropriator of the tithes. The church, dedicated to St. Bridget, is a small neat edifice, without either tower or spire, but embellished with a fine window of painted glass, removed from Basingwerk abbey, near Holywell, at the time of the dissolution: within the church are some ancient gravestones of Knights Templar ; and in the churchyard, which is ornamented with several fine yew trees, are two singular tombstones, with a bow sculptured upon each, and an ancient pillar, or weeping stone, from which the primitive chiefs and princes are said to. have dispensed their judgments. The ancient mansion in which the archdeacons resided was rebuilt in 1799, for the parsonage- house, and has been since enlarged by the present incumbent, who has also repaired the church. There are places of worship for Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists. A day school is supported chiefly by the curate; and there is a Sunday school for adults, as well as children. The charitable bequests are few and small: the principal is an annual sum of Al. 10., arising from the BOdryddan estate in the neighbourhood, which is distributed among the poor. The small remains of the ancient castle, consisting only of a few fragments, occupy the summit of a limestone rock about half a mile from the village: from this spot is an extensive view of the Irish sea and part of the Vale of Clwyd. Near the church was formerly a beautiful cascade, formed by a stream from Fynnon Asaph, in the parish of Cwm; but it is now almost destroyed by the diversion of the stream to the mines. The average annual expenditure for the support of the poor is 41272. 10.