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Definitions

Fortified residence

The strict scholarly castle: a fortified private residence of a lord. Both halves are load-bearing — a fortress nobody lived in is not one, and an undefended great house is not one either.

Criterion

The structure was built or adapted to be BOTH a defensible work and the residence of a private lord (secular or ecclesiastical), and was so used. Defensibility means active defence — wall walks, parapets, flanking fire, a gatehouse meant to be held — not merely a wall or a moat. Communal defences held by a town, and works built and garrisoned by a state, both fail the "private residence" half however formidable they are. Tenure decides, not silhouette.

Includes

  • Masonry castles and timber castles (mottes, ringworks, motte-and-bailey)
  • Tower houses and pele towers where residence and defence coincide
  • Fortified episcopal and royal residences (a royal lord is still a lord)
  • Japanese shiro and other non-European lordly fortifications — the criterion is functional, not geographic

Excludes

  • Urban defences and town walls (communal, not private)
  • State artillery forts and coastal batteries (state, not seigneurial)
  • Moated houses and walled sites with no active defensive capability
  • Palatial residences whose defensive features are decorative

Closure: enumerable

Closable per jurisdiction, because national archaeological registers classify by monument type and a "castle" class can be filtered and counted. Ireland is the proof: the SMR returns 4,552 Castle-class records, and 129 if you accept only Anglo-Norman masonry castles. The band closes one jurisdiction at a time, never globally.

Who defines it this way

  • R. Allen Brown — English Castles (Batsford, 1954) (source)
    The private fortress and residence of a lord.
  • D. J. Cathcart King — Castellarium Anglicanum (Kraus, 1983) (source)
    A fortified residence of a (feudal) lord.
  • John Goodall — The English Castle (2011) (source)
    A castle is the residence of a lord made imposing through the architectural trappings of fortification.
  • Philip Davis — Defining 'The Castle' (2009, revised 2016) (source)
    In effect it is impossible to define 'the castle' since there is no one such thing. Much of the controversy in castle studies between militarists and revisionists lies in a befuddled use of examples of 'castles' of very different function.
  • FISH / Historic England Monument Type Thesaurus — Term 'Castle', scope note (source)
    A fortress and dwelling, usually medieval in origin.

Bounded by

In this dataset

assessedregister-derived
Satisfies this definition934551
Contested110
Does not satisfy130
Unassessed0

Derived from the records, not typed. See counts and coverage.

Note

Three cautions about this band, all of which its own authorities supply. First, the scholars are cited THROUGH Davis's essay, which quotes each of them and was read directly; the monographs themselves were not opened. That is recorded rather than hidden, because a citation chain is only as strong as its weakest undisclosed link. Second, Davis — who built a six-thousand-site gazetteer, making him about the most qualified person alive to define the term — concluded that it cannot be done. This project agrees, and the bands are the consequence: not a better definition, but an admission that one definition was always the wrong shape. Third, medieval usage was itself unstable, so the strict band is not even faithful to its own period. Davis notes that a castellum could be a manorial centre with no fortification at all, or a village — the Vulgate calls Bethlehem a castellum. Note too that the leading learned society, the Castle Studies Group, publishes no definition of the term at all. That absence is itself evidence.

Assessed records

Structures somebody applied this criterion to, with the reasoning.

  • Aberedw Castle — yes: Meets both halves of the criterion on the designation evidence. Active defence: a curtain wall still standing to c.1.9m, round towers of c.6m diameter at each corner, a ditch on three sides, and an entrance broken by a causeway across it. Lordly residence: slight traces of internal buildings, and Walter Hakelutel received a LICENCE TO CRENELLATE by 1285 — the documentary class Coulson reads as a royal acknowledgement of private seigneurial status rather than a military permission, which is precisely what this band means by a lord's fortified residence.
  • Abergavenny Castle — 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.
  • Aberystwyth Castle — yes: Cadw report CD008 describes a concentric-walled castle with a twin-apsidal tower gateway carrying a pointed entrance, portcullis chase and crenellated parapet, round flanking towers to inner and outer wards, a mural tower and a dry moat — active defence built to be held, not merely a wall. A Royal Mint was later established "in the castle hall", evidencing the residential hall of the royal builder Edward I; a royal lord is still a lord under this band.
  • Hen Blas Castle Site — yes: Cadw report FL062 records excavations concluded in 1957 showing an earthwork castle replaced in the early thirteenth century by a fortified manor house, abandoned in the late fourteenth — a lord's residence set within a ditched spur-end enclosure defended by a ditch and steep natural slopes. Earthwork and timber castles fall within this band; a castle is recorded here from 1157 and was captured in 1166, evidencing defensive tenure as well as residence.
  • Plas Baglan — yes: Cadw report GM358 records a castle or fortified house on an artificially levelled rectangular platform defended on west and south by steep natural slopes and across the north and part of the east by a constructed ditch, with a rectangular residential building (14m by 12m) and an abutting courtyard. Defence and a lordly residence coincide on one site, satisfying both halves.
  • Beaumaris Castle — yes: Cadw report AN001 describes a concentric castle of Edward I with four rings of defences, gatehouses north and south built to be held, corner and buttressing towers giving flanking fire, and a water-filled moat with a dock. Domestic buildings stood within the inner ward (since removed), evidencing the residence of the royal builder; a royal lord is still a lord under this band.
  • Cnwclas Castle — contested: CONTESTED between two registers. Cadw schedules this as SiteType: Castle, which maps to this band. Wikidata classes the same monument (joined on Cadw Monument ID) as a contour fort, which maps to enclosure_fortification instead. The registers disagree about what kind of thing it is, not about the evidence: Cnwclas (Knucklas) Castle — a medieval castle on a hilltop with earlier enclosure works, so both readings describe something real on the site. Recorded as contested rather than resolved to whichever register we imported first.
  • Newcastle Castle — yes: Cadw report GM063 records a courtyard castle, roughly circular, with a full-height battered curtain wall and two square mural towers, held by identified lords — Robert Fitzhamon, a royal phase under Henry II, then from 1217 the Turbeville Lords of Coity. Buildings stood within the ward and the south tower was adapted for domestic use, evidencing lordly residence coinciding with active defence.
  • Castell Bronllys — yes: A motte up to 8m high with inner and outer baileys, initially with timber defences and later a stone tower on the motte, battered at the base and entered at first-floor level with a room on each floor. Lordly throughout — built for Richard fitz Pons and inherited by the Cliffords with the lordship of Cantref Selyf. Accommodation and defence in the same work, which is the criterion.
  • Castell Caernarfon — yes: Royal lordly residence and active fortress. The Eagle Tower was "probably at first intended to accommodate the King's lieutenant" and the castle held royal apartments, while the twin-towered King's Gate, the mural towers and the curtain walls formed "a complete and defensible enclosure" that withstood Glyn Dŵr's sieges of 1403-04 and Civil War sieges. A royal lord is still a lord; both halves of the criterion are met.
  • Caerphilly Castle — yes: Built 1268-71 by Gilbert de Clare, lord of Glamorgan, as both fortress and residence. Active defence: concentric curtain walls, twin D-shaped gatehouses with portcullises at both ends, flanking corner towers and large-scale water defences (an identified lord's held work). Residence: the great ground-floor hall "was a sumptuous building" with well-appointed state apartments on the south of the inner ward.
  • Castell Morgraig — yes: Ruined pentagonal walled enclosure c.40m across with its angles "defined by the remains of four towers and on the east a keep", described by Cadw for its "medieval defensive and domestic practices" — active defence (angle towers, a keep) coincident with lordly domestic use on the southern boundary of Welsh Senghennydd.
  • Dinham Castle — yes: Cadw MM153 describes two rectangular stone buildings (one 14m by 7m, two rooms) within a circuit of shallow ditch, low wall footings and a bank on a steep-sided spur standing 3m above the ditch — residential masonry combined with defensive earthworks and walling.
  • Llanvair Castle — yes: The FitzPayn family's manorial caput (they "held the manor"): a compact masonry ward with round flanking towers at N and S angles and a curtain wall standing 5m internally and 10m externally, defended by scarps and a dry ditch. The three-storey SW tower carries arrow-loop embrasures, a doorway onto the west curtain's parapet and joist-holes "for a timber gallery or hourd", enclosing a first-floor hall/chamber block — both active defence and lordly residence.
  • Caldicot Castle (unoccupied parts) — yes: A motte-and-bailey founded in the 12th century by Milo Fitzwalter, Lord of Caldicot, and refortified in stone from c.1221 by Humphrey de Bohun. Active defence: a keep with 3m walls, cross arrow loops, a crenellated parapet and hourd; a curtain wall with a full wall-walk; and the de Bohun and Woodstock gatehouses with portcullises and murder holes meant to be held. Residence: grand lordly accommodation in the SE tower and hall range, and a gatehouse built as "accommodation for the Lord and his family" — both halves met, for identified lords.
  • Cardigan Castle — yes: Cadw's report describes a keep on the north curtain wall (1246-52), three mural towers to the SE, E and N, an oval outer ward, and a 7m-wide defensive ditch with a counterscarp bank — active defence. Built by the Norman lord Gilbert de Clare c.1110, held by Lord Rhys and the Marshals: a fortified residence of a lord.
  • Carew Castle — yes: The medieval phase meets the criterion: three towered ranges set about a courtyard, a great hall flanked by two great towers on spurred bases, a walled forecourt, an outer court and a gatehouse — active defence organised around the residence of the de Carew lords, on a ridge commanding a tidal river crossing.
  • Carmarthen Castle — yes: Cadw's report describes a stone-revetted motte, a twin-towered gatehouse (a gate meant to be held), a south-west corner tower, a wall turret and sections of curtain wall with half-round turrets — active defensive features. A castle that passed to the Crown and became the administrative centre of south-west Wales, held by lords including William Marshall the younger, earl of Pembroke.
  • Original Swansea Castle — yes: Cadw's report describes a motte-and-bailey castle with a deep ditch, rebuilt in stone with a curtain wall and mural tower and a walled rectangular outer bailey — active defence. Established by Henry de Beaumont, first earl of Warwick, as the seat of administration of the marcher lordship of Gower: an identified lord's fortified residence.
  • Swansea Castle — yes: Cadw's report describes a curtain wall, cross arrowslits, a turret with an arrowslit and a full-height garderobe tower alongside a residential south block containing a first-floor hall and solar — combined active defence and lordly residence, held by the de Braose lords.
  • Chepstow Castle — yes: Cadw's report describes a rectangular Great Tower, a heavily defended Upper Barbican, curtain walls, D-shaped mural towers and a main gatehouse of two round towers "well equipped with arrowloops to provide a wide field of fire" — the oldest twin-towered gatehouse in Britain, a gate meant to be held. Residence of earls (William fitz Osbern, William Marshal, Roger Bigod) with a domestic range and the earl's gloriette. Combined lordly residence and active defence.
  • Castell Cilgerran — yes: Cadw's report describes two strong round towers projecting beyond the curtain wall with arrow slits, a main gatehouse with portcullis grooves and draw-bar holes (a gate meant to be held), a curtain wall with wall-walk and a defensive ditch cutting off the promontory — active defence. Residence with hall, private apartments and kitchen, held by Earl William Marshal of Pembroke and later the Hastings and Vaughan families.
  • Cilgerran Castle Additional Area — yes: Cadw PE384 describes the ditch that protected the bailey of Cilgerran Castle and later formed part of the outer-ward defences, together with the castle's gatehouse surviving as low wall footings — a ditch plus a gatehouse (active defence, meant to be held) about the castle's residential bailey.
  • Castell Pen-yr-Allt — yes: The report describes a motte-and-bailey castle: a 4m-high motte carrying the collapsed remains of a masonry tower (the lord's residential strongpoint) with a bailey defended by a 5–6m rock-cut ditch, a bank standing up to 7m, a counterscarp and geophysically-confirmed complex multivallate defences. That is active defence combined with a lordly residential strongpoint — both halves of the criterion in the classic castle form.
  • Castell Coety — yes: Coity was the caput of the lordship, held by the de Turberville family from the early 12th century and later the Gamages (identified lords). The inner ward has a faceted curtain wall incorporating a rectangular keep, a west gatehouse and a north-east gatehouse, all set behind a deep ditch and counterscarp bank — active defence held against siege in the 1405 Glyndwr rebellion. Domestic ranges (a first-floor hall over a vaulted undercroft, kitchen with ovens) supply the residence half.
  • Castell Conwy — yes: Built by Edward I from 1283 as "a secure residence for the king and a seat for the royal court" (a royal lord is still a lord). Active defence: a 3m-thick, up-to-27m-high curtain wall with eight round towers, a continuous wall walk, a west barbican and an entrance defended by drawbridge and portcullis. Residence: a great hall range, royal apartments and a vaulted royal chapel — "the most intact set of residential buildings left by the medieval English monarchy".
  • Deganwy Castle — yes: A castle built c.1080 by Robert of Rhuddlan and later held and rebuilt by Llywelyn and by Henry III (identified lords). Active defence: a polygonal donjon enclosure wall with a c.40ft round tower, a bailey wall c.5ft thick with an outer ditch, and a strong gateway of paired D-shaped towers. Residence: the King's Hall completed by 1250 and chambers with fireplaces. Both halves of the criterion are met.
  • Llanblethian Castle — yes: A large courtyard castle whose gatehouse and curtain wall are attributed to Gilbert de Clare (the Last, d. 1314), an identified lord. Active defence: a massive twin-towered gatehouse — a gatehouse meant to be held — and a high length of curtain wall on the north side. Residence: the walled ward with a central mound carrying the shell of a thick-walled building, possibly an earlier keep.
  • Castell Cricieth — yes: Cadw's report describes an inner and outer ward bounded by a curtain wall with wall-walks and rebuilt battlements, a twin-towered inner gatehouse, a simple outer gatehouse and flanking towers (the SE/Leyburn, SW/Great and N/Engine towers, the last adapted with a stepped ramp to mount a siege engine) — active defence meant to be held. It was the residence of the Welsh princes Llywelyn Fawr and Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, later reconstructed by Edward I. Both the active-defence and private-lordly-residence halves of the criterion are met.
  • Crickhowell Castle — yes: Cadw's report describes a 12th-century motte (60m diameter, 8m high) and bailey rebuilt in stone in 1272, with a shell keep on the motte, a defensive wall carrying two D-shaped flanking towers, a bailey curtain wall with round towers and a crenellated conjoined double tower — active defence with flanking fire and parapets. Built and held by the Turberville family, then rebuilt by Sir Grimbald Pauncefote and refortified by Sir John Pauncefote (named lords) before Glyndŵr left it in ruins. Both halves of the criterion are met.
  • Kenfig Castle & Medieval Town — yes: Cadw's report describes a castle keep c.14×15m with walls c.2m thick standing 3–4m, its north wall best preserved and carrying an intact gun loop — a defensible residential strongpoint that satisfies the residence-and-defence test of a masonry castle. (The surrounding bank-and-ditch ramparts enclosing the 3.34ha borough are communal town defences and belong to a different band, not this half.)
  • Castell Carreg Cennen — yes: Cadw's report describes an outer ward with a curtain wall, drum towers and gate, an elaborate barbican whose stepped ramp is guarded by two gates over deep pits, and a central gatehouse — 'hub of the castle's defence' — flanked by a circular NW and square NE tower reached by wall-walks: active defence meant to be held. The east range holds the lord's living quarters (hall, kitchen, private apartments, chapel, cisterns). Held by the rulers of Deheubarth, then Edward I, then John Giffard (named lords). Both halves of the criterion are met.
  • Dinas Powis Castle — yes: Cadw's report describes a rectangular Norman keep (18×13m, very thick walls) and a curtain wall enclosing the site, with a main entrance archway retaining a draw-bar hole and a narrow pointed-arch postern, and a great hall and buildings lining the walls — a defensible residence that 'still has the appearance of a defensive stronghold' on a naturally strong ridge. It was the centre of the lordship of Dinas Powys, held by the Norman de Sumeri family (Roger de Sumeri). Both halves of the criterion are met.
  • Castell Dolwyddelan — yes: Assessed from Cadw full report CN040. Active defence: two towers linked by a 13th-century curtain wall (4ft 6in–5ft 6in thick) with a wall-walk and a surviving arrowslit loop, rock-cut ditches to E and W, a keep entered on the first floor via a fore-building with a drawbridge pit, a main NE gateway and a defended postern. Residence: keep and NW tower with fireplaces, window seats and latrines. The castle was the royal residence of Llywelyn ap Gruffydd — a royal/princely lord is still a lord. Both halves met.
  • Castell Allt Craig-Arth — yes: Assessed from Cadw full report CD092. The report securely classifies the monument as a motte-and-bailey — a timber-castle type explicitly within this band. Active defence: an oval motte ~8m high defended on three sides by steep slopes and on the east by a double bank and ditch (inner bank 6.5m above the ditch bottom) with a controlled straight entrance. The residence half is carried by the securely-identified motte-and-bailey form (motte tower plus bailey), the report's "military stronghold"; occupants are not named.
  • Dyserth Castle — yes: Assessed from Cadw full report FL130. Active defence: a west-facing gatehouse flanked by one round and one polygonal tower, two large polygonal towers facing north, and inner/outer wards defined by rock-cut ditches and banks on a towering limestone rock. Residence: a domestic range opposite the north towers "presumed to be a hall and chambers". A royal castle established by Henry III in 1241 (a royal lord is still a lord). Both halves met, though most of the inner ward was later quarried away.
  • Castell y Fflint — yes: Assessed from Cadw full report FL003. Active defence: a square ward with a round tower at each corner, arrowslit embrasures, moated inner and outer wards, a drawbridge, and an inner gatehouse held by a turning gate, doors and a portcullis. Residence: residential tower floors, a large fireplace, a chapel, and a great tower/donjon ("a castle within the castle") with full residential accommodation and a well. Built in 1277 by Edward I (a royal lord is still a lord); both halves securely met.
  • Castell Gwallter — yes: Assessed from Cadw full report CD005. Active defence: a flat-topped motte (32–33m across, 4.5m high) that "would have been crowned by a great timber tower, with a strong breastwork on the counterscarp", encircled by an 8m-wide U-shaped ditch and counterscarp bank, plus a defended bailey. Residence: the bailey "would have been the site of the lordly hall"; the site was the caput of the lordship of Geneu'r-glyn, established by the Anglo-Normans c.1110. Both halves met.
  • Castell Meredydd — yes: Cadw's report describes a circular keep c.10m across with a latrine chute (a lordly domestic residence), a curtain wall filling the gap between the outcrops and a bailey enclosure defined by a massive stony bank covering a curtain-wall fragment (active defence), built by Maredydd Gethin, Prince of Gwynllwg, and later held by the Clares. Both the defensible and private-lordly-residence halves are met.
  • Grosmont Castle — yes: Curtain wall with three round towers enclosing the inner ward, a gatehouse with a 14th-century drawbridge pit (active defence meant to be held), and a two-storey hall block whose upper floor held the hall and the lord's solar (residence); held by Hubert de Burgh and later the Earl of Lancaster. Both the fortified and private-lordly-residence halves are met.
  • Castell Harlech — yes: Concentric Edwardian castle (begun 1283) whose gatehouse was "conceived as an independently defensible unit" with paired drum towers, portcullises and murder-holes (active defence meant to be held); the gatehouse held lavishly-appointed residential suites and the castle served as Owain Glyndŵr's residence and court 1404-1409 — a royal lord is still a lord, so both halves are met.
  • Haverfordwest Castle — yes: Inner ward with round towers, a square tower with projecting turret, a rectangular keep retaining early arrow loops, a gatehouse and a wall-walk carried on corbels (active defence held), together with a spacious hall with large windows and private apartments (residence); founded by Tancred and later held by de Bohun and Queen Eleanor. Both halves are met.
  • Castell Ewloe — yes: Walled upper ward on a natural outcrop enclosing a rectangular keep with an apsidal end whose first-floor principal apartment provided the residence, a wall-walk and a glacis of smooth stone "to deter missiles" (active defence), and a lower ward with a round tower and well; built c.1257 by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Both halves are met.
  • Hawarden Castle — yes: The report gives its own definition — "a defended residence or stronghold ... in which the principal or sole defence comprises the walls and towers bounding the site" — and describes a shell keep serving "mainly to provide accommodation", a curtain wall around the bailey and a hall with an elaborate barbican (defence meant to be held); the earlier work was built by Hugh, Earl of Chester. Both halves are met.
  • Hay Castle — yes: A substantial ringwork with a circular enclosure and a stone keep on its summit, held by the de Braose lords — an identified lordly residence, which is what routes a ringwork into this band rather than the enclosure one. Defensibility is documented in use, not merely in form: captured and burnt by King John in 1216, rebuilt by Henry III, and recorded as defensible against the Welsh in 1403.
  • Holt Castle — yes: Cadw DE106 defines a castle as 'a defended residence or stronghold... in which the principal or sole defence comprises the walls and towers bounding the site', and describes Holt (built 1282-1311) as a pentagon of towered curtain walls on a rock enclosing ranges of apartments — flanking towers and curtain as active defence about a lordly residence.
  • Castell Caergwrle — yes: Cadw FL020 records Caergwrle as erected by the Welsh lord Dafydd ap Gruffydd c.1278 (later held and refurbished by Edward I), a masonry castle defended on north and east by a rock-cut ditch and counterscarp bank — a defended residence of an identified lord, satisfying both halves of the criterion.
  • Castell Cydweli / Kidwelly Castle — yes: Cadw CM002 describes a concentric castle held by identified lords (Bishop Roger of Salisbury, the de Chaworths, Henry earl of Lancaster, Sir Rhys ap Thomas) with a square inner ward of four round flanking towers, portcullis gates, an outer curtain of mural towers and a Great Gatehouse fitted with murder holes and machicolations, enclosing halls and lordly accommodation — active defence and lordly residence together.
  • Pencoed Castle — contested: Cadw MM274 cuts both ways — the moated enclosure, gatehouse and round corner tower offered 'a degree of security' but 'more importantly' formed 'a suitably imposing show façade', with curtain walls under 1.5m thick and under 4m high, a postern lacking a draw-bar hole and a tower opening that is 'not an arrow loop'; genuine defensibility and decorative fortification are both argued in the report.
  • Laugharne Castle — yes: Strong masonry castle of the de Brian lords — a stone curtain wall with two round towers, the NW tower acting as a keep, and a late-13th-century forward-projecting gatehouse with a defended entrance passage and postern; a fortified private lordly residence.
  • Castell Dolbadarn — yes: Built by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, Prince of Gwynedd — a stone curtain wall enclosing the summit with a hall inside and a large round keep whose first-floor doorway was defended by a portcullis; the report's own definition calls it 'a defended residence or stronghold'.
  • Llanddew Castle — yes: An episcopal residence of the Bishops of St David's and seat of the Archdeacon of Brecon (Giraldus Cambrensis lived here 1175–1203), defended by a stone curtain wall with two round flanking towers and a ditch or moat; a fortified residence of an ecclesiastical lord.
  • Castell Dinefwr — yes: The seat of the Welsh rulers of Deheubarth (built by Rhys Gryg, d. 1233) and by Edward I's wars 'a formidable fortress' — a great round keep, a high angular curtain wall, a gatehouse, an entrance passage protected by a high wall, and a defensive bank with a deep rock-cut ditch; a fortified lordly residence.
  • Llandovery Castle — yes: A 12th-century motte-and-bailey castle later refortified in stone — a shell keep on the motte, a strong D-shaped tower and a twin-towered gatehouse with a well turret — held by lords such as John Giffard, granted Cantref Bychan by Edward I; a fortified lordly residence.
  • Castell Dolforwyn — yes: Established by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Gwynedd, in the late 13th century — a rectangular keep and a circular tower linked by ramparts into a walled enclosure with a D-shaped tower and a defended west gateway, divided by a rock-cut ditch; a fortified princely residence.
  • Tretower Castle — yes: Shell keep, a retained gatehouse, and Roger Picard's great four-storey round tower with structural evidence of a permanent wooden fighting gallery (hourd) give active defence; the integrated two-storey hall and chamber block with fireplaces and private accommodation for Roger Picard and his wife Matilda supply the residence of an identified lordly family.
  • Castell y Bere — yes: Built by Llywelyn ab Iorwerth of Gwynedd in 1221; large and small apsidal towers, a small round tower overlooking a tiny barbican, complex entrance works, rock-cut ditches and a curtain wall around the inner ward give active defence, while the non-defensive rectangular structures abutting the inner face of the curtain wall housed the residence of a Welsh princely lord.
  • Castell Dryslwyn — contested: CONTESTED between two registers. Cadw schedules this as SiteType: Castle, which maps to this band. Wikidata classes the same monument (joined on Cadw Monument ID) as a contour fort, which maps to enclosure_fortification instead. The registers disagree about what kind of thing it is, not about the evidence: Dryslwyn Castle — a native Welsh castle of the Deheubarth princes, built on a hill that carries earlier defences, so both readings describe something real on the site. Recorded as contested rather than resolved to whichever register we imported first.
  • Skenfrith Castle — yes: Built by Hubert de Burgh (1219-1232) to administer a Marcher lordship; high curtain walls with boldly projecting round corner towers, arrow loops, retained wall-walks and joist holes for timber hourding, and a broad stone-lined wet moat give active defence, while the central round keep's reception room, well-appointed chamber with latrine and oriel, and timber domestic ranges housed the lord.
  • Castell Dinas Bran — yes: A stone castle built in the 1260s by the lords of Powys Fadog occupies the hillfort's north-west corner; a rock-cut ditch, a keep well preserved on its south and west, an intermittent curtain wall and a typically Welsh apsidal tower give active defence, and the great hall or chapel with surviving arched windows housed the lord.
  • Llangibby Castle (Castell Tregrug) — yes: Built by the de Clare family in the 13th century (thought unfinished after Gilbert de Clare V died at Bannockburn in 1314); a large oblong bailey enclosed by a curtain wall largely complete to battlement level, flanking round towers at the entrance, and a rectangular keep with massive corner towers give active defence, and the keep with its vaulted rooms provided the lordly residence.
  • Mathrafal Castle — yes: A motte and bailey castle — the motte forming the lord's fortified strongpoint and the adjacent bailey a defended enclosure — with an impressive series of rectangular defences set around the motte and further protection from the River Banwy; excavation shows 13th-century refashioning and enlargement of earlier curving defences, an active seigneurial defence.
  • Llangynwyd Castle — yes: A 13th-century masonry castle on a promontory above the confluence of two streams, with an impressive gatehouse (probably c.1262-3) meant to be held, a partially surviving curtain wall, and an outer bailey enclosing the visible footings of several buildings — active defence enclosing a lordly residence.
  • Weobley Castle — yes: An east curtain wall, two southern towers, a stairs turret rising to a lookout and an entrance gatehouse provide active defence, while the hall, solar, chambers with large fireplaces and lordly ownership by the de la Bere family (from c.1304) satisfy the private-residence half; Cadw cites national importance for medieval defensive practices.
  • Castell Llansteffan — yes: A square gatehouse defended by portcullis and doors, a later double-towered gatehouse (modelled on Caerphilly's East Gate) with front and rear portcullises, five murder holes and outer machicolations, wall-walks carried on vaults and D-shaped mural towers provide active defence; the North Tower and the gatehouse's well-appointed great rooms with fireplaces served as the lord's private accommodation — both halves met.
  • White Castle — contested: The report cuts both ways. It describes a lordly castle with a private appartment, a chapel and a hall and heavy active defence (a twin round-towered gatehouse with portcullis and drawbridge, mural round towers, arrowslits and an exceptionally deep, steep-sided moat) — yet states that 'the sole purpose of White Castle was military', that it was garrisoned by troops and was austere and functional, so the private-residence half is argued against by the designation itself.
  • Llantrisant Castle — yes: Built c.1250 by Richard de Clare, Lord of Glamorgan, to hold the district of Meisgyn (an identified private lord), with a circular great tower (the 'raven') giving onto a wall-walk, a curtain wall skirting the spur, a half-round projecting mural tower and flanking ditches providing active defence — both halves met, though the report details defence more fully than domestic accommodation.
  • Castell Carn Dochan — yes: Probably built by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, prince of Gwynedd, between 1215 and 1230 (an identified ruling lord), with a curtain wall carrying three integral towers, a central square tower, a D-shaped tower and a rock-cut defensive ditch providing active defence; Cadw cites importance for medieval settlement and defence — both halves met.
  • Llawhaden Castle — yes: Both halves met — the gatehouse has D-shaped towers on deeply spurred bases with arrow slits, a machicolation gallery, 'murder holes', a portcullis slot and vaulted guardhouses (a gatehouse meant to be held), set in a curtain wall with a wall walk; and it was the residence of the bishops of St David's (an ecclesiastical lord), rebuilt as a fortified mansion under Bishop Adam de Houghton.
  • Loughor Castle — yes: Both halves met — a ringwork castle of the lordship of Gower founded by Henry de Villiers (a lord), with a stone curtain wall built before 1215, an adjoining entrance gateway, and a late-13th-century stone tower whose fireplace and garderobe show it was residential.
  • Castell-Du, Sennybridge — yes: Defensible work and lordly building both present — a projecting D-shaped tower on a 26m stone wall with a probable residential range alongside, constructed by Llywelyn ab Gruffudd (a Welsh lord) around 1262 to command the Senny/Usk crossing.
  • Manorbier Castle — yes: Both halves met — an inner ward curtain wall with an east gatehouse and flanking north tower, round tower, spur tower and turret, an outer ward behind a defensive ditch with wing walls, refortified for the Civil War; and the residence of the de Barri family (lords), with hall block, kitchens and chapel abutting the curtain.
  • Penlle'r Castell — yes: A motte-and-bailey castle — a sub-rectangular mound divided by a broad ditch and girdled by a deep V-shaped ditch, with drystone structures on top — raised during the late-13th-century border dispute between the lords William de Breos and Rhys Fychan; the report notes only temporary occupation, but the form and lordly context are those of a private fortified work.
  • Monmouth Castle — yes: Both halves met — built by William Fitz Osbern as the fortified head of an independent Norman lordship, originally with a circular keep, a gatehouse and a curtain wall (destroyed in the Civil War); the surviving Great Tower held a first-floor hall and apartments over a cellar, and Edmund of Lancaster's Hall was used for holding courts.
  • Montgomery Castle — yes: Cadw report MG022 records an inner ward built in stone from the outset "to house the king and his immediate household", with a twin-towered inner gatehouse (great chamber, private rooms, chapel) flanked by three-quarter-round towers and defended by a portcullis and two pairs of heavy doors, plus a stone outer gatehouse and curtain of 1251-53 — active defence meant to be held combined with a royal lordly residence satisfies both halves of the band.
  • Oystermouth Castle — yes: Cadw report GM007 describes a keep, a gatehouse and curtain walls built 1256-66 for active defence, and states William de Braose regarded it as his most impressive residence (Edward I lodged there in 1284), with a hall block and a chapel added — a defensible work that was the private seat of a lord meets both halves of the band.
  • Narberth Castle — yes: Cadw report PE040 records a masonry curtain wall with four cylindrical drum towers and D-shaped flanking towers over a dividing ditch (active defence), enclosing a two-storey Great Hall and vaulted domestic range, the castle held by Roger Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore — a lord's defensible residence, both halves met.
  • Neath Castle — yes: Cadw report GM039 describes a great twin-towered gatehouse, a curtain wall with projecting round towers and a drawbridge (active defence meant to be held) built for the lords of Glamorgan, with building foundations surviving in the interior — a private lordly stronghold and residence satisfying both halves.
  • Newcastle Emlyn Castle — yes: Cadw report CM085, which defines a castle as "a defended residence or stronghold... in which the principal or sole defence comprises the walls and towers bounding the site", records a twin-towered gateway c.7.6m high, a corner tower and a steep banked barbican with bank and ditch — active enclosing defence meant to be held for a lordly castle, meeting both halves.
  • Newport Castle (Unoccupied parts) — yes: Cadw report PE087 records a gatehouse, three corner towers and a curtain wall set within a large moat and counterscarp bank (active defence), enclosing an internal building with an undercroft, the castle founded by the lord William Fitzmartin — a lord's defensible residence, both halves met. (The 1859-60 conversion of the gatehouse into a house is excluded from this scheduled area.)
  • Morlais Castle — yes: Cadw report GM028 records a curtain-walled enclosure with angle towers, a rock-cut ditch and counterscarp bank (active defence) begun in 1288 by Gilbert de Clare, lord of Glamorgan, its inner ward holding traces of a hall and chapel — a lord's defensible residence satisfying both halves; the report itself cites both defensive and domestic practices.
  • Pembroke Castle — yes: Cadw report PE005 describes a 22m round keep with battlements, curtain walls, round towers, and a Great Gatehouse with two portcullises, three machicolations, arrowslits and a barbican (active defence meant to be held), enclosing William Marshal's hall and private apartments and a later Great Hall, the castle held by the Marshal, de Valence and Hastings lords — both halves emphatically met.
  • Pennard Castle & Church — yes: Stone curtain wall and a gatehouse the report calls a copy of substantial Edwardian gatehouses such as Caerphilly, built within a 12th-c ringwork — an actively defensible work; a demesne manor of the lords of Gower where the court of the lordship was occasionally held — a lordly residence. Both halves met despite the comparatively light defences.
  • Penrice Castle — yes: A 13th-c drum-tower keep with a large ward; a gatehouse with flanking defensive turrets, a portcullis slot behind the entrance arch, and guard towers with loops facing the entrance to give flanking fire — active defence. The keep and an attached three-storey range with a large corbelled fireplace provide lordly accommodation. Both halves met; abandoned in favour of Oxwich as the family seat.
  • Remains of Peterston Castle — yes: The castle of the le Sore lords of St Fagans and Peterston, held from c.1102 until sold in c.1382 — identified private lordly tenure. Surviving fabric is the north-west angle tower over possible traces of a 12th-c keep: a three-floor tower with a splayed window, a garderobe chute and a newel stair — a fortified lordly residential tower. Both halves met.
  • Castell Rhaglan — contested: The designation text argues both sides of this band in consecutive sentences, which is why it is contested rather than decided. Against: Cadw states Raglan was built 'not as a defensive structure, but as a fortress-palace', and that the Great Tower MIMICKED the keeps of earlier castles as 'the ultimate status symbol'. For: the fabric includes a Great Tower, a gatehouse, a closet tower and a walled court, and a 15th-century magnate's seat was defensible in fact whatever the intent. This is exactly the militarist/revisionist dispute the band's own authorities are divided on — Coulson would read the display as the point, and the fabric as the vocabulary of rank rather than of war.
  • Rhayader Castle — yes: Cadw describes a defended promontory above the River Wye commanded by a large rock-cut vertical ditch to the north-west and a scarp to the river plain on west and south — deliberate defensive works, and Cadw's own designation frames the site as "a defended residence or stronghold". Only earthwork defence is observed here (no masonry, towers or gatehouse are described), so the verdict rests on the defensive siting and cut ditch rather than standing fabric.
  • Penmark Castle — yes: A substantial 13th-c castle: a round tower standing to second-floor level and a stretch of massive curtain walling running south from it around the inner ward, with a large outer ward to the west — a defensive enceinte. Held by the de Umfreville family and then the Bawdrips — identified private lordly tenure. Both halves met.
  • Castell Rhuddlan — yes: A concentric Edwardian castle begun 1277: a diamond inner ward with twin-towered gatehouses at two angles and single flanking towers at the others, curtain walls surviving to the wall-walks (battlemented parapets now lost), and a walled moat — active defence built to be held. The inner ward held the king's hall and chamber, the queen's hall and chamber, the chapel, and a constable's residence — a fortified royal residence (a royal lord is still a lord).
  • Ruthin Castle — yes: A 13th-c castle on a sandstone ridge, an irregular pentagon with a surviving curtain wall, two standing wall-towers, a corner entrance gateway and a moat still visible to the north — active defence. Within it the report locates the hall (opposite the gateway) and a chapel abutting the west curtain — the lordly residential accommodation. Both halves met.
  • Cas Troggy Castle — contested: The report cuts both ways under this band's active-defence test. It describes massive polygonal corner towers, an ashlar curtain wall with a battered base and flanking angle towers (genuine defensible work), yet judges the site "effectively a fortified hunting lodge" whose "massive corner towers and curtain walls contrast with significant weaknesses presented by the lack of serious defences for the remainder of the site, the huge latrine outlet to the eastern tower and large hall windows", with "no signs of a gatehouse".
  • Ogmore Castle — yes: Established by the private lord William de Londres before c.1107 as a ringwork and bailey, later given a rectangular stone keep (walls 1.8m thick, west wall surviving to 12.5m), a faceted stone curtain wall entered by a gate passage, a re-cut rock ditch flooded by the river, and a 21m hall with domestic quarters — a defensible work and the residence of a named lord, both halves met.
  • Tenby Castle — yes: Held within the Lordship of Pembroke, the coastal promontory ruin retains active defensive fabric — a gate tower and D-shaped barbican at the south-west entrance, a round central watch tower with a square stair turret, and embattled curtain wall — alongside "parts of domestic buildings", combining held defence and lordly residence.
  • Castell Coch — yes: In its medieval phase the Clare lords of Glamorgan raised a stone fortress by c.1290 over an earlier earth-and-timber motte — a masonry apron, shell keep, three round towers (Kitchen, Keep and Well), a rectangular gatehouse and curtain wall — a lordly residence with real active defence, "destroyed militarily in the early 14th century" during the Welsh rebellions of 1314-1316.
  • Usk Castle (Unoccupied Parts) — 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.
  • Castell Tal-y-Fan — yes: On a knoll with artificially scarped slopes on all sides save the south and a wide ditch running around south, south-west and east, a curtain wall enclosed the site and "would have protected a keep and other associated castle buildings", placed to command the road north from Cowbridge — an enclosing defensive wall and earthworks around a lordly residential keep.
  • Ystrad-Meurig Castle — yes: Cadw's report describes a defended residence bounded by active defences — a rampart and ditch on the north where it faces level ground, and scarps above steep natural slopes elsewhere — with a massive rectangular stone tower (18-20m) forming part of a building complex, the keep "served mainly to provide accommodation" (the residence half). Established about 1110, disputed, besieged and rebuilt through the later 12th century: a lordly stronghold held and contested, satisfying both the defensible and residential halves.
  • Castle at Calverstown Demesne — contested: CONTESTED between two registers. The Archaeological Survey of Ireland classes this Castle - tower house, which maps to this band. Wikidata (Q140623341), joined on the SMR identifier, classes it manor house, which maps to palatial_seat. The disagreement is about what kind of thing it is: a tower house that was later absorbed into or rebuilt as a country residence. Recorded as contested rather than resolved to whichever register was imported first.
  • Fanningstown Castle — contested: CONTESTED between two registers. The Archaeological Survey of Ireland classes this Castle - tower house, which maps to this band. Wikidata (Q55050704), joined on the SMR identifier, classes it stately home, which maps to palatial_seat. The disagreement is about what kind of thing it is: a tower house standing within, or converted into, a later country seat. Recorded as contested rather than resolved to whichever register was imported first.
  • Trim Castle — yes: The largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland: a genuine fortified private residence of a lord, with curtain wall, towers, gatehouses meant to be held, and a great keep serving as the lordly residence. Meets both halves of the criterion without strain.
  • Castle at Mullaghreelan — contested: CONTESTED between two registers. The Archaeological Survey of Ireland classes this Castle - ringwork, which maps to this band. Wikidata (Q24196386), joined on the SMR identifier, classes it ringfort, which maps to enclosure_fortification. The disagreement is about what kind of thing it is: a ringwork on a site that may equally be read as an earlier ringfort — the two are hard to separate on the ground and Irish archaeology disputes exactly this boundary. Recorded as contested rather than resolved to whichever register was imported first.
  • Chittorgarh Fort — contested: A hill fort enclosing palaces, temples and an urban settlement, seat of the Sisodia rulers of Mewar. It is a lordly fortified seat, but the enclosed settlement makes it closer to a fortified town than a private residence, and the European private/communal distinction does not map cleanly onto Rajput polity.
  • Himeji Castle — yes: A fortified residence of a lord, satisfying the criterion on its own functional terms: defensible works - baileys, gatehouses meant to be held, loopholes, a spiral approach designed for defence - combined with the residence of a daimyo. The criterion is functional rather than geographic and Himeji meets it without needing a special case.
  • Crac des Chevaliers — contested: A concentric fortress of the highest order that was also the residence of the Hospitaller garrison. Whether a military order counts as a private lord is exactly the boundary the criterion cannot settle: the Order was neither a state nor an ordinary seigneur, and scholars differ. Recorded as contested rather than forced.

Register-derived records (4551)

Transcribed in bulk from a register's own typology. Nobody has applied this band's criterion to these structures, so they carry confidence: low and are counted separately above. Upgrading them to assessed verdicts is real outstanding work, not a formality.

Definition file · dataset licensed CC BY 4.0