Castles / GB / Wales
Usk Castle (Unoccupied Parts)
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 | A Marcher lord's castle (de Clares, then William Marshal, then the Earls of March) with emphatic active defence — a curtain wall with round flanking towers, a portcullis gateway, and the Garrison Tower with battlements, cruciform arrowslits and beam holes for a fighting gallery — held by a recorded garrison of archers and sergeants and withstanding Henry III's siege of 1233, combined with a keep, hall block and high-status apartments as the lordly residence. |
| 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 | unassessed | No source consulted so far speaks to this definition. Unassessed is not the same as no. |
Facts
| Tradition | european medieval |
|---|---|
| Location | Usk, 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 —
MM012· Scheduled Monument — SiteType: Castle · entry
Location
Approximate. © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Notes
fortified_residence upgraded to assessed against Cadw's detailed report (MM012), which documents held active defence (round flanking towers, portcullis, Garrison Tower with fighting gallery, recorded garrison, a resisted siege) and lordly residence. state_fortification is OMITTED, not applied — the castle was periodically in royal hands but its original and governing purpose was seigneurial, so the lordly reading governs. Later domestic apartments were added alongside, not in place of, the defences, so palatial_seat is not triggered. Single Cadw source, confidence medium.
Sources
- Cof Cymru - National Historic Assets of Wales — Cadw, 2026-07-21
Register entry and full scheduled-monument report; the report was read and the fortified_residence band assessed against it.
Signals
Raw per-source observations behind this record (2):
sig-20260721-cadw-mm012,
sig-20260722-report-mm012
Record file · dataset licensed CC BY 4.0 — see provenance.