Newport Castle

Newport Castle

This castle comprises several medieval structures integrated into an 1859 house. The complex includes a northeastern gatehouse with flanking towers (now incorporated into the house), the northwestern Hunters' Tower (partly standing to full height), the southwestern Kitchen Tower (largely disappeared), and the northeastern Great Tower (of which the ground floor survives with an open courtyard and fine ashlar pointed entry). The various curtain walls are largely ruinous. North of the Great Tower survives the basement of a substantial building, possibly a chapel, with a vaulted undercroft of 4 cells on a central octagonal pier. For a full archaeological report, see the National Monuments Record at Aberystwyth.

The house itself is built into the back of the gatehouse tower with its main 19th-century front facing south. It is 2 storeys with a basement, presenting a 3-window front with a slate eaves roof, crested ridge, and a ridge stack of 3 stone circular shafts. A very large round stack with a chimneybreast rises at the west end, built up from the original curtain wall. The windows are unevenly spaced. The upper windows are cambered-headed square sashes with marginal glazing bars, stone voussoirs and slate sills, with the centre window slightly higher and set beneath an eaves gable. The ground floor has one longer similar sash aligned under the first floor right window, a gabled stone porch to the right, and a hipped-roofed timber square bay window to the left, positioned between the centre and left windows above. The porch has a pointed arch, slated eaves roof and crested ridge tiles. The bay window has French windows to the front. The basement features a cambered-headed casement. To the right of the house, a lean-to roof abuts a square medieval tower forming the rear of the east side of the gatehouse structure; this roof appears to be a post-1859 addition built over the vaulted medieval stairs descending to the gatehouse passage. There is a 19th-century pointed-arched porch with a flat roof at this location.

The house is L-plan and 3 storeys on its north side, where windows pierce through medieval masonry. The original gatehouse comprised 2 round towers flanking the entry, though the eastern tower has been rebuilt flat-fronted after collapsing in the early 19th century. It now has 2 lancets and a picturesquely ruinous top. The central part, marking the site of the former entry, is largely rebuilt with three 19th-century cambered-headed casement windows vertically aligned and a corbelled embattled parapet. The west tower retains its original rounded form on a battered base, with 3 stages each slightly recessed, then a corbel table and ruinous octagonal cap. A 19th-century arched light to the basement front and first floor northeast is present. The west return of the gatehouse tower has two 19th-century arched lights to the basement, a large first floor timber 3-light window with transom and stone cambered head, and a casement pair above under a stone eaves gable. The rear of the main front range is built out from the curtain wall with a basement triple casement, a first floor large timber oriel on wooden brackets with a hipped slate roof, and a 3-light gabled half-timbered dormer in the roof. The west end wall has a ground floor timber cross-window and casement pair above. A blank shield plaque is present in the gable.

The house interior is relatively plain for the 19th-century work, with clear evidence that additions post-1859 have been made at the east end. Pointed rough vaults survive on both sides of the original entry passage, along with wall recesses and other extensive remains of the medieval structure. The centre staircase of the new work runs from the basement level entrance passage of the original gatehouse. A plain open-well timber stair, not clearly relating to the 19th-century front door, possibly altered post-1859, is present. The interior features 6-panel doors and simple fireplaces.