Visited October 2009

Location	Chepstow, Monmouthshire
Entrance Fee	Yes - check website
Railway Station	Chepstow approx 1/4 mile
Parking	Yes
Facilities	Toilets, Shop
Map

Review

This is a fabulous castle, first impressions as you walk up the path to the entrance are that of wonder & awe, such a strong, brooding castle, built not for showing off the wealth and grandeur of the owners but for defence, fortification and battle.

Perched high above the river Wye, Chepstow Castle was started in 1067, just a year after the Norman conquest, as a stronghold from which William the Conqueror could assert his power over the Welsh rebels. The sheer age of this castle is enough to command respect, but the scale of it is also quite awesome, as you walk from one part to another it seems to go on for ever. It was the first castle we visited with proper battlements to walk along, and the children loved it, they also seemed to appreciate that we were high up so they needed to hold hands and behave. There are several towers with narrow, stone steps to climb – we tackled the first one we came to with great gusto but by the second one I have to admit I was the one who became scared by the height of the tower and so we only made it halfway up. *

As the photos show the castle is now a ruin, despite being a medieval stronghold, it could not withstand the cannon fire of the Civil War and fell to the Parliamentary forces. What we have today is a fascinating castle with beautiful views over the River Wye.

My only complaint, (and it is really a very small grumble as we enjoyed our trip here tremendously) is that the toilets are down the hill in the car park, a bit of a pain if you have small children who suddenly decide they need the loo urgently just as you are at the furthest point away from them. Make sure you bear that in mind if you have potty training aged children!!!

The castle is maintained by CADW, (Welsh Heritage) and in keeping with most of their sites it has very reasonable entrance fees.

*On a return visit in 2014, we climbed to the top of the castle tower with ease. We are now much more experienced in tower ascents and found that in the intervening years we had actually climbed much more scary towers than this one!!  Some of the photos here are newly updated from our most recent trip!

More info: CADW Chepstow Castle