Abergavenny Castle / Castell y Fenni
History
Abergavenny Castle stands in Monmouthshire, Wales, just south of the market town of Abergavenny, above the River Usk. The Norman lord Hamelin de Balun built it around 1087 to guard the river and the lowland areas from incursions by the Welsh from the hills to the north and west.
The original castle was a typical Norman motte and bailey, with a ditch, a wooden palisade, and a wooden keep on the mound. Soon after 1100, a stone keep replaced the wooden one, and a wooden hall was built on its western side. Henry FitzMiles, lord of Abergavenny and son of Miles of Gloucester, was killed, reputedly by Seisyll ap Dyfnwal of Castell Arnallt. Without a male heir, the lordship and castle passed to Henry's sister Bertha and her husband, William de Braose, who rebuilt parts of the castle and added the curtain wall, some of which still stands.
The curtain wall and a ruined tower.
Abergavenny's worst day came over Christmas in 1175. De Braose invited Seisyll, his son Geoffrey, and other leaders from Gwent to the castle, supposedly as an act of reconciliation, and then had the men killed in the castle's great hall to avenge Henry FitzMiles. Sanctions were placed on de Braose for the deed, and he was “retired” from public life, so the castle passed to his son, William. The massacre was not forgotten. In 1182, Hywel ap Iorwerth, lord of Caerleon, ordered the destruction of Dingestow Castle and had Abergavenny Castle set afire in revenge for Seisyll's murder. The sixteenth-century antiquary William Camden wrote that the castle “has been oftner stain'd with the infamy of treachery, than any other castle in Wales.”
From about 1190, the castle was largely rebuilt from local red sandstone to make it more defensible, with towers along the curtain wall and a new keep. King John visited in 1215, during a period when the castle passed between Welsh and English hands. The Hastings family later expanded it, and the semicircular tower and the Solar Tower, side by side at the northwest corner of the inner ward, are thought to date from their work between about 1295 and 1314. Much more of the castle may have stood than survives as ruins today.
The hunting lodge on the motte, with the hills of the Usk valley behind.
In 1404, during the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr, Welsh forces sacked and burned the town of Abergavenny and besieged the castle. The garrison there in 1405 reportedly numbered 80 mounted soldiers, their armed servants, and 400 archers. The castle barbican dates from around that time, just before or just after 1405. No lord lived at the castle again after the 15th century.
During the English Civil War, as Parliamentarian forces neared, Charles I ordered the castle slighted to make it useless to them. Most of the buildings, including the stone keep, were destroyed, and stone was later carried off for other buildings. By the late 18th century, the ruins were visited for their picturesque views, and walks were laid out inside the walls. In 1819, Henry Nevill, 2nd Earl of Abergavenny, had a hunting lodge built on the motte where the keep once stood, and later in the 19th century, William Nevill, 5th Earl of Abergavenny, created a formal public garden with views over the Usk valley. The castle was listed Grade I on July 5th, 1952, and the grounds are on the register of historic parks and gardens in Wales.
Castle Highlights
Ruined towers and walls beside the path through the castle.
Abergavenny Castle is a picturesque ruin today. The hunting lodge of 1819 still stands on the motte and houses Abergavenny Museum. The motte is the oldest part of the castle. The ruins of a semicircular tower, the hexagonal Solar Tower, and the barbican still exist, along with part of the curtain wall, which is the most impressive surviving feature. The castle's plan shows a great hall and apartments in the inner ward beside the Solar Tower, and a cellar in the outer ward, but today the inner and outer wards are little more than open grassy lawns and make an excellent place for a picnic.
The castle can be thoroughly explored in a couple of hours. There is no castle car park, so visitors use the nearby town car park, which is close. To make a full day of visiting castles, Raglan Castle is about 10 miles to the east, along the A40.
