Castles / GB / Wales
Abergavenny Castle
Which definitions does it satisfy?
This dataset does not record whether something “is a castle”. It records a verdict against each named definition, with the reasoning that produced it.
| Definition | Verdict | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Fortified residence | yes | Both halves of the criterion are met by the report. Private lordly residence: described as "an important medieval baronial castle" and the caput of the Abergavenny Marcher lordship, held successively by the de Braose, Hastings and Beauchamp lords, with a great hall, high-status solar apartments and a chamber fit for the constable. Active defence: a curtain wall standing "almost to parapet height" with surviving wall-walk flagging, a gatehouse "extended outwards into the ditch" with a rebate for a drawbridge, and conjoined solar towers with spur buttresses, mural passages and arrow-lit loops. Fortification and lordly residence coincide throughout the medieval life of the structure. |
| Enclosure fortification | unassessed | No source consulted so far speaks to this definition. Unassessed is not the same as no. |
| State fortification | unassessed | No source consulted so far speaks to this definition. Unassessed is not the same as no. |
| Palatial seat | unassessed | No source consulted so far speaks to this definition. Unassessed is not the same as no. |
| Revival and folly | unassessed | No source consulted so far speaks to this definition. Unassessed is not the same as no. |
| Popularly a castle | yes | Assessed on usage, not the register's name. The report records real public standing: a museum/visitor operation now occupies the embattled 1818 building on the motte, the site is discussed "in some guidebooks", and the castle "forms a prominent landmark in modern Abergavenny" sharing group value with the priory, church and town-wall remains — evidence a general audience knows and visits it as a castle. |
Facts
| Tradition | european medieval |
|---|---|
| Location | Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales, GB |
| Built | Medieval |
| Confidence | medium |
| First recorded | 2026-07-21 |
| Last updated | 2026-07-22 |
In the registers
Where this structure appears in official inventories. This is what turns an individual record into evidence about a count.
- Cof Cymru — National Historic Assets of Wales —
MM056· Scheduled Monument — SiteType: Castle · entry
Location
Approximate. © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Notes
ASSESSED against the six band criteria on 2026-07-22 from Cadw's full designation report. The assessing run returned this record stripped of its descriptive fields; those were restored from the imported record and only the verdicts are the gnome's work. See docs/decisions/0002.
Sources
- Cof Cymru - National Historic Assets of Wales — Cadw, 2026-07-21
Register entry; the sole source for this record.
Signals
Raw per-source observations behind this record (1):
sig-20260721-cadw-mm056
Record file · dataset licensed CC BY 4.0 — see provenance.