Skenfrith Castle

Skenfrith Castle is a ruined early 13th-century curtain-walled castle constructed from roughly-coursed Old Red Sandstone. It was once surrounded by a moat fed by the river. The castle has a trapeziform layout, with the northeast side measuring approximately 80 meters, the northwest and southwest sides about 60 meters each, and the southeast side around 40 meters. There are circular towers at each corner, a semi-circular tower added to the center of the southwest side in the late 13th century, and a circular keep-tower located in the inner ward.

Except for a wide breach in the middle of the northwest side, which serves as the entrance, the side walls still stand to a height of about 4 to 5 meters, with the surviving towers slightly taller. However, little remains of the corner tower at the northwest, and much of the facing masonry has been removed from the walls on either side. The original entrance is believed to have been located in the middle of the northwest side, and the only other entrance is a "water gate" in the middle of the northeast side, where steps lead down to a depressed-arched doorway.

The circular keep tower, which is situated on a low mound slightly southwest of the center of the inner ward, has a diameter of just over 10 meters and stands about 12 meters tall. It features a battered plinth approximately 2 meters high, a former round-headed doorway at first-floor level on the north side (with the masonry diagonally below it breached), a convex extrusion on the west side (of which only the bottom remains) that likely accommodated a circular stair within the wall, and remains of three round-headed window openings. Along the inner side of the southwest wall, there are foundations of the basement of the former hall range, and near the northeast corner, there is a circular well.