Tump Terret Castle

Tump Terret Castle stands in Tryleg, Monmouthshire, on a low grassy mound beside a quiet lane. It is a motte, one of the many earth-and-stone mounds raised across Wales between the late 11th and the late 12th centuries. The Normans brought the idea from France and Welsh lords soon copied it, digging a ditch around the base as extra defence. Cadw, Wales’s historic environment service, keeps the site on its list and calls it SAM MM016. The borderlands between England and Wales hold the greatest concentration of these mottes, stretching from Shropshire through Herefordshire and Powys to Flintshire. Visitors walk a short path to the top of the mound where the view opens over fields and distant hills. The ditch below is still visible, and the grass is kept short so the shape of the castle can be seen clearly. There are no walls or towers left, only the earthen bank and the hollow where the keep once stood.