Tretower Castle

Tretower Castle is a ruined medieval castle built of rubble sandstone, consisting of a circular tower on a motte surrounded by remnants of a shell keep. The shell keep comprises a gatehouse, kitchen, hall and solar, with remains of a wall walk at the top.

The circular tower dominates the site and rises three stages above a basement. The walls are 9 feet thick and battered at the base, with a string course marking the top of the batter. The basement is lit by two loops with very deep splays. The entrance to the tower was originally at first-floor level on the north side, where creasing of a former gable is visible. Doorway dressings survive only inside and consist of a two-centred arch with stop-chamfer moulding. A mural stair within the wall thickness leads to the second floor.

The first floor has a large fireplace on the north-west side with a raked ashlar hood on moulded corbels flanked by scalloped corbels. A window with a two-centred head on the south-east side has remains of benches in the reveals. A similar window to the south has within its reveal an entrance to a mural stair leading to the basement. The second floor is accessed via a doorway on the east side, which has a two-centred head with stop-chamfer surround. This floor also has a fireplace similar to the first floor and two windows with fine slab seats in the reveals and segmental rere arches with stop-chamfer surrounds. From the reveal of the window on the west side is a short tunnel-vaulted passage leading to an external doorway under a two-centred arch, giving access to a former wooden bridge which led to the curtain wall walk. The creasing of the bridge gable is visible on the external face. A mural stair to the upper storey is lit by two narrow lancets. The slightly narrower upper stage contains two-centred windows to the north-east and west with segmental, stop-chamfer rere-arches and remains of stone seats. A doorway with a segmental head is on the east side.

The former gatehouse is on the east side of the shell keep and survives only at ground level. Within the gateway is a pit over which the drawbridge would have been lowered. The rebates of the former gate survive on the inner side, and on the north side are jambs of a stairway that led to the curtain wall walk.

The kitchen and first-floor hall are on the south side of the shell keep and have a canted projection, battered at the base, extending from the line of the curtain wall and solar. The kitchen has an external stack which tapers above a string course defining the roof line of the 12th-century hall, which was heightened in the mid-13th century to create a wall walk. Internally, the kitchen has a semi-circular fireplace flanked by small round-headed windows with deep splays. The north wall of the kitchen is a later 13th-century addition and has a doorway with a two-centred head. Immediately west of the projection is a round-headed doorway leading to a blocked former stairway to the hall, which has one stair light blocked and another ruinous. Above the stairway are two blocked round-headed windows, both having rere arches with heavy roll mouldings. The larger east window lit the hall, the smaller west window the solar. Above the windows is the string course and former wall walk.

The solar is on the west side of the shell keep at first-floor level, with a basement below having a battered wall. The south-west corner of the solar collapsed in 1947 but contained a newel stair from the basement, possibly added in the 13th century to the wall walk. The solar west wall has an external stack carried up above the original roof line and blocked off by an offset against the 13th-century parapet, one loop of which survives. On the south side of the stack is a blocked round-headed window with a segmental rere arch. At basement level two blocked openings or recesses are visible internally, and in the south-west corner is an oven inserted in the 14th century. The solar fireplace is blocked but has plain jambs and a segmental arch. The curtain wall on the north and north-east sides survives only partially at low level.

The bailey is triangular in plan, with the castle to the west and ruins of round towers at the north and east angles. Between the keep and east tower the wall survives at low level and crosses a moat with a round-headed culvert. The wall has battered buttresses. The east tower survives at low level and has a segmental pointed doorway to the bailey. The flanking bailey walls are higher at this point. Between the keep and north tower the wall is not continuous, a short length of wall having been added in the mid-20th century from the keep. The remainder of this wall stands at high level with lean-to farm buildings to the inner side. The section between the north and east towers is mostly missing and occupied by farm buildings.