- Type
- Ruin
- Built
- c. 1435 · 15th century
- Location
- Wales, United Kingdom
- Coordinates
- 51.7703°, -2.8501°
History
Work on the present castle began around 1435 under William ap Thomas, known as the Blue Knight of Gwent, who built the hexagonal Great Tower surrounded by a moat. His son William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke and a Yorkist supporter, added a splendid gatehouse, courtyards and apartments; he was beheaded in 1469 after the battle of Edgecote. Through marriage the castle passed to the Somersets, Earls of Worcester, who added a long gallery among other things in the 16th century. During the Civil War it was a royalist stronghold; in 1646, after a siege of more than ten weeks, it surrendered to Thomas Fairfax's parliamentary army. The victors pulled down parts of the walls and brought down a section of the Great Tower.
What to see
Visitors enter through a tall machicolated gatehouse leading into a cobbled courtyard. The walls of the great hall with its huge window survive, along with kitchens, cellars and remains of the gallery. Above the moat rises the Great Tower, one wall torn away during the slighting, and from the moat walk you can see the niches that once held statues.
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