Penrhos Castle

Penrhos Castle stands on a grassy mound in Monmouthshire, a medieval earthwork built between 1000 and 1153. The site is a motte-and-bailey castle, a common type in the Welsh Marches. Cadw recognises it as a scheduled monument with the reference MM097. The largest concentration of such mottes appears in the borderlands of Shropshire, Cheshire, Herefordshire, Powys and Flintshire. The castle’s earthen ramparts still rise sharply above the surrounding fields. Its bailey once held timber buildings and a palisade. The mound itself measures about thirty metres across at the base. The site overlooks a quiet valley near the village of Castle Gwyn. Visitors walk a short path to the top of the mound. From there they see rolling farmland stretching to the horizon. The remains are modest but give a sense of the castle’s original height and position. The grass is kept short by grazing sheep. On clear days the Black Mountains form a distant backdrop.