Laugharne Castle

Laugharne Castle is a significant structure featuring a five-sided inner ward built from old red sandstone rubble, with some freestone dressings. It has crenellated parapets, some of which are ornamental, and spur buttresses.

The oldest part of the castle includes two round towers to the north, with one in ruins to the northeast, and a former keep to the northwest that has wide embrasures. The basement was converted into a wine cellar in the late 18th century, and repairs were made in the 1920s and 1930s, but the original conical dome remains intact. The towers flank a later 15th-century four-storey hall, which underwent alterations in the late 16th century by the Perrot family. The main rooms are located on the second floor, and there is a stair tower to the north.

To the west, there is a forward projecting four-storey gatehouse that combines medieval and late 16th-century construction. Above the pointed entrance arch, which features a hood mould, is a gable with a fine three-storey Tudor bay window. The curtain wall connects the gatehouse to a three-shoot garderobe at the inner end, and to the southwest, there is a four-storey tower with a basement, part of which is vaulted. A stone pent garderobe is located on the south wall, and there is a ruined oriel window at the high end of the former hall, with a medieval postern gate beyond.

The eastern wall was demolished in the 17th century, but an 18th-century garden wall built on top of the late 13th-century curtain wall continues northeast, adjoining the gazebo.

Laugharne Castle is among the most substantial castle remains in Wales. Excavations have revealed remnants of a Tudor cobbled courtyard, a pitched stone kitchen floor, and ground plans that relate to all periods of the castle's history.