Visited July 2019

Location	Narberth, Pembrokeshire
Entrance Fee	No
Railway Station Nearby	Narberth- 1 mile
Parking	Town Car Park
Facilities	In town
Map

Review

The small town of Narberth in Pembrokeshire is pleasant and peaceful, and has a range of shops & cafes, a picturesque town hall and a highly rated museum. It also has a lovely little castle, but you would not necessarily know it as there are no signs advertising it in the village. We just followed our nose until we found it, we would never have found it if we had relied on the towns signposts as it simply does not feature on them, although the museum, for example, is extensively sign posted. I have no idea why this is the case, it is as if Narberth does not want to advertise the fact that it has a castle. Which is a shame as the town is home to a cracking ruin.

The entrance to the castle  is situated on the end of Castle Terrace (the only clue to its existence) You walk through an unmarked gate and  through the outer bailey towards the remains of the North East tower, which is the first part of the ruins that you come to. This tower was also used as the keep. There are the remains of four towers left on site, out of the six which the castle originally had.

The castle once had an L-shaped great hall and solar, over the kitchen and vaulted storage which were at ground floor level. The remains of the vaulted cellar survive and are accessible. Behind these remains are two more of the surviving towers, the South East and the South West towers. They are  on elevated ground, if you walk down to the bottom of the mound and look back up you get a fantastic view of the castle. We have used a picture of this view as our first picture on this page.

The site has some information boards which tell us that the castle was once the mighty stronghold of Roger Mortimer, who rebuilt the castle in the thirteenth century. It is thought that the site of the present castle was previously the site of the palace of Prince Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, who is featured in Welsh Mythology through the stories of the Mabinogi.

To visit this castle takes a bit of effort and some research with a map beforehand. It is well worth it though, as the ruins are picturesque, well kept (you wonder who bothers when they don't exactly advertise people to come here?) and quiet. It is a lovely spot for a picnic, but also has plenty of space for children to play on the grass. At the same time we were glad that there were several other visitors there at the same time as us, which is great as I would hate for this interesting site to be forgotten about.

The caste has no facilities but the town of Narberth is charming and bustling with cafes, gift shops and there are toilets by the town car park. Just get some better signage for the castle guys please!

More info:  Narberth Castle