Abergavenny Castle: A Norman Fortress in Wales
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- British, English, Norman
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page12 sections
History
Abergavenny Castle is a ruined Norman castle in Wales, United Kingdom, standing immediately south of Abergavenny town centre. The Norman lord Hamelin de Balun established it around 1087 to overlook the River Usk and its valley and to guard the lowlands south and east of the town against Welsh incursions from the hills to the north and west.
Norman foundation and the de Braose succession
The first fortification consisted of a motte, a raised earthen mound for a castle keep, protected by a ditch and palisade. A wooden keep stood on the mound, with a wooden hall on its western side. Soon after 1100, the wooden keep was replaced by a stone structure.
In the 1160s, Henry Fitzmiles, lord of Abergavenny, was killed, reportedly by Seisyll ap Dyfnwal of Castell Arnallt. Fitzmiles left no male heir, so his estates, lordship, and castle passed through his daughter Bertha to her husband, William de Braose. De Braose rebuilt parts of the castle and constructed its enclosing curtain wall, a defensive wall linking towers and other fortified structures.
During Christmas 1175, William de Braose summoned Seisyll, his son Geoffrey, and other leaders of Gwent to the castle under the pretext of reconciliation. He then had them killed in the great hall in revenge for Henry Fitzmiles’s death and seized their lands. De Braose was subsequently removed from public life, and the castle passed to his son.
Destruction and medieval rebuilding
In 1182, Hywel ap Iorwerth, lord of Caerleon, ordered the destruction of Dingestow Castle and the burning of Abergavenny Castle in retaliation for Seisyll’s murder. Seisyll’s relatives carried out the attacks. William de Braose was absent, but most of his men were taken hostage.
The castle was almost entirely rebuilt from about 1190 to strengthen its defences. Local Old Red Sandstone, a red sedimentary rock widely used in Welsh fortifications, formed the main building material. Five towers were added along the curtain walls, together with a new keep. Control of Abergavenny alternated between Welsh and English forces during the struggles for the Welsh Marches, the border territories between England and Wales. King John of England visited the castle in 1215.
The Hastings family expanded the castle during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. John Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings, probably built a circular tower and a polygonal tower between 1295 and 1314. The western towers contained residential chambers. Murage taxes, medieval charges used to finance town walls, helped fund the walls of Abergavenny, and another wall was built between the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.
Revolt, decline, and later use
In 1404, during the Glyndŵr Rising, the early-fifteenth-century Welsh revolt led by Owain Glyndŵr against English rule, Welsh forces sacked and burned Abergavenny and besieged the castle. William Beauchamp and his men were rescued by Richard of York and forces assembled by the Sheriff of Hereford at the request of Henry IV. In 1405, the garrison comprised 80 mounted soldiers with their armed servants and 400 archers.
No lord lived at the castle after the fifteenth century. During the English Civil War, Charles I ordered the castle to be slighted as the Roundheads, or Parliamentarian forces, approached. This prevented its useful occupation. Most of the buildings, including the stone keep, were destroyed, and stone was later removed for use in other buildings.
By the late eighteenth century, the ruins had become a destination for visitors seeking picturesque views, and walks were laid out within the castle walls. Henry Nevill, 2nd Earl of Abergavenny, commissioned a hunting lodge on top of the motte in 1819. Later in the nineteenth century, William Nevill, 5th Earl of Abergavenny, created a formal public garden with walks, gardens, gazebos, and views over the Usk valley.
The hunting lodge now houses Abergavenny Museum, which includes a saddler’s workshop and a Victorian Welsh farmhouse kitchen. Abergavenny Castle has been a Grade I listed building since 1952, while the hunting lodge has been Grade II listed since the same year. Other features, including the outer wall, have been listed since 2005. The castle grounds are recorded on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales at Grade II.
The castle’s violent reputation was captured by the sixteenth-century antiquary William Camden, who described Abergavenny Castle as having been more frequently stained by treachery than any other castle in Wales.
Remains
Medieval fortifications
Motte and early buildings
The earliest surviving element is the motte, once surrounded by a ditch and palisade and crowned by a wooden keep. A stone keep replaced that structure soon after 1100, while a wooden hall stood to its west. The later rebuilding created a more substantial defensive complex, but the stone keep and most other buildings were destroyed during the Civil War slighting.
Curtain wall and towers
The high twelfth-century curtain wall is the most prominent surviving part of the ruin. The castle was rebuilt from about 1190 in local Old Red Sandstone, with five towers constructed along the enclosing walls and a new keep added to the defences. The Hastings-period western additions included a circular tower and a polygonal tower, probably built between 1295 and 1314, with residential chambers inside. A further wall was constructed between the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.
Gatehouse
A fortified gatehouse, possibly a barbican gatehouse, may date from shortly before or shortly after 1404. A barbican is an outer defensive work protecting an entrance. The architectural historian John Newman described this gatehouse as unimpressive.
Castle buildings and later landscape
Hunting lodge and museum
The hunting lodge built on top of the motte in 1819 survives as a later structure within the castle grounds. It now contains Abergavenny Museum, whose exhibits include a saddler’s workshop and a Victorian Welsh farmhouse kitchen.
Formal garden
The nineteenth-century garden occupies the castle grounds and includes walks, gardens, and gazebos, with views over the Usk valley. These later landscape features form part of the site’s surviving physical character alongside the medieval motte, ditch, curtain wall, and towers.
