Castle Tump

Castle Tump stands in Trecastle, a village on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park in Powys, Wales. It is an early 11th-century motte-and-bailey castle built by Bernard de Neufmarche, half-brother of William the Conqueror. The castle’s earthen mound rises six and a half metres high, making it the largest motte in the national park. A flat summit forty metres long and sixteen metres wide once supported a wooden tower. The bailey, a defended enclosure to the south-west, measured fifty-six metres by forty metres. Both were surrounded by deep ditches and outer banks, typical of Norman fortifications in Wales.

The castle played a part in Welsh resistance during the 12th century. It was attacked by Welsh forces between 1121 and 1136 and later rebuilt by Walter Clifford in the 1150s. Edward I spent three days in Trecastle in 1295 to suppress a local revolt. After the 13th century the site lost its military importance and no stone buildings remain. Yet its earthworks survive almost intact, marking it as the best-preserved motte-and-bailey in Breconshire.

Today the oval motte is covered with mature trees and overlooks the eastern end of the village. The flat summit offers wide views across the surrounding countryside. A quiet lane leads up to the mound, where visitors can walk the old ramparts and imagine the wooden keep that once crowned the summit. The village itself still carries the name Trecastle, meaning ‘the town of the castle’, linking the modern settlement to its medieval past.