Raglan Castle

Raglan Castle is a 15th-century stone castle with 16th-century extensions and alterations. The buildings are arranged around two courts and set behind the Great Tower. The castle developed through four distinct building phases: 1435–45, 1460–69, 1549–89, and the late 16th to early 17th century.

The earliest phase (1435–45) produced the Great Tower, a dressed stone structure influenced by contemporary French towers. Originally hexagonal with five storeys, only four sides now substantially remain, and it stands four storeys high. A winding stone staircase runs to the west, with a latrine to each floor on the east side. The entrance is through a four-centred moulded doorway. Above this sits a window framed by drawbridge sockets, enlarged when a forebuilding (now demolished) was added. A doorway later converted into a fireplace retains the drawbridge socket as a flue. The vestibule contains doorways to the former great chamber. The basement kitchen has gun-loops and cross-slits, with a large fireplace and stone corbels. The great chamber has single-light windows and cross-slits. The second floor features a fireplace with four-centred arch, two-light windows with seating embrasures, and later brick niches. The third floor has a mixture of single and double-light windows.

The South Gate, originally the main castle entrance, is three storeys high with a two-centred arched opening set within a depressed frame. The first floor has two single-light windows, one of which is blocked. The passageway contains carved corbels retaining elements of fan tracery and a winding stone stair. The south and west walls of the Hall also date from this period. The south wall retains a weathered coat-of-arms of the 3rd Earl of Worcester on a stone plaque above the former dais, beneath a former flat-headed window that retains some tracery. The west wall preserves corbels for the former roof and stone steps in the former chapel.

The second phase (1460–69) saw the construction of an apron wall with corner towers to the Great Tower and the Great Gate. The Great Gate comprises two half-hexagonal three-storey towers with basements and machicolations with gargoyles, built in dressed sandstone. A latrine occupies the south-west angle. Single-light windows have pointed traceried heads. The basements contain circular gun-loops and portcullis grooves. Some stone vaulting remains on the side walls of the entrance passage between the two towers. On the south-west side, doorways from either side of the gate-passage lead to ante-chambers. The first floor holds the principal withdrawing room; a cross-wall was inserted later in the 16th century with fireplaces. The apartments retain carved shields and badges held within slender stone shafts that enclose the first-floor windows.

The Closet Tower, designed to integrate with the half-hexagonal towers of the Great Gate, has three stages with machicolations and basement. The ground floor room contains a latrine and fireplace, with doors to the stair and basement. The courtyard side features later large rectangular gallery windows to the first floor and two and three-light stone mullioned windows above.

The Kitchen Tower is hexagonal with two large fireplaces, built in stone with brick refacing to the north-east face. It has three storeys and a basement. The top floor has windows with seating embrasures. Stone steps descend to a vaulted wet larder in the basement with two four-centred windows and various gun-loops.

Buildings in Fountain Court are largely destroyed to ground level on the courtyard side. Two projecting towers to the curtain wall have cross-slits and latrines, with single-light windows to the outer wall. The largest tower contains the grand stair to the former living apartments, accessed through a four-centred moulded doorway, and has three fireplaces. The east wall of the 15th-century chapel survives with corbels in the form of human heads and some stone vaulting. End windows of the Long Gallery remain, along with part of a Renaissance fireplace.

The third phase (1549–89) saw the construction of the Office wing, running from the Closet Tower to the Kitchen Tower on the site of an earlier wing. It is largely destroyed except for the outer curtain wall with a half-hexagonal projecting tower and three fireplaces.

The Pantry and Buttery originally stood as a two-storey structure, enlarged to three storeys and subsequently lengthened to complement the Hall. Steps from the Buttery descend to the basement, with an access doorway from the Buttery to the Hall. Two projecting polygonal towers to the curtain wall include one with a winding stone stair and single-light windows, and another with two-light windows to the north face and single and later two-light windows to the side. The top floor has large mullion-and-transom windows.

The Hall features a door from the Buttery and an oriel window to the Pitched Court side. A three-stage buttress separates two large flat-headed mullion-and-transom windows with trefoil cusps. The porch has a four-centred doorway and two three-light flat-headed windows with trefoil cusps to each light, and a fireplace. A stone bridge connects the South Gate to the former Bowling Green.

The late 16th to early 17th-century phase produced the White Gate, comprising two half-hexagonal towers joined by a guardroom. Not built as a defensive structure, it is largely destroyed except for part of the south wall of one storey, which retains a single-light window, a sculpture niche, and a basement with arrow-slits.