Grosmont is a small, free to visit, ruined Norman castle on the Welsh borders that formed part of the Three Castles lordship before lapsing into obsolescence.
Visiting Grosmont Castle
Grosmont was a pretty village but finding the castle was actually a challenge! It wasn’t where the sat nav said and the only sign we saw was when we followed directions from a local and there was a small sign hidden in the trees. I’m not sure if there were others but they’d been removed or if there just weren’t any. We parked by the post office, got Alice and the dogs out of the car and walked the short distance to the castle. There are no facilities at the castle other than a picnic bench.
My Experience
After much debate on where to go with Alice we eventually decided to start her indoctrination into castle visiting! I chose two I hadn’t been to before, Grosmont and Skenfrith, both on the Welsh borders. My sat nav genie rubbed it’s hands in glee and maliciously chose the most ridiculous routes it could find meaning that I was bloody stressed before we’d even got to the first one. Alice did her best to keep us cheerful and sang pretty much the entire way, little poppet.
Grosmont was a pretty village but finding the castle was actually a challenge! It wasn’t where the sat nav said and the only sign we saw was when we followed directions from a local and there was a small sign hidden in the trees. I’m not sure if there were others but they’d been removed or if there just weren’t any. We parked by the post office, got Alice and the dogs out of the car and walked the short distance to the castle.
Grosmont Castle was actually surprisingly large even though I couldn’t make sense of its position as it wasn’t defending anything I could see or in a good site. There were a couple of information boards about the history of the castle and how it originally looked. Taking photos was entertaining with two dogs working together to pull in different directions or see how many poo bags they could fill up!
We crossed the drawbridge and Alice was just delightful, wanting to see everything, several times, and climb up all the steps, several times much to Deb’s delight! I explained to her about the arrow slits and windows but I’m not sure she understands medieval warfare yet so we made it Pokemon and dinosaurs instead! It was good (for me anyway) seeing the evolution of the castle from square towers to the round ones, the great hall and some weird chimney like thing that didn’t seem to have any fireplaces connected.
Despite other people with dogs choosing to visit (how selfish!) Frey and Juno were well behaved. We walked back to the car after I’d done a circuit of the castle while Deb sat at the picnic benches in the shade.
Grosmont Castle Photo Gallery
History
Following the Battle of Hastings, William I (the Conqueror) appointed one of his principal supporters, William FitzOsbern, as Earl of Hereford. After building significant castles at Chepstow and Monmouth, William overran the surrounding Monmouthshire territory including that occupied by Grosmont Castle. It was sometime late in the eleventh century when the first castle was raised at the site; initially built as a earthwork and timber fort.
One of three castles (the others were Skenfrith and White), it was situated in an area such that it could dominate and control the local area whose populace were entirely Welsh; the contrast between the French speaking Normans and the locals could not have been starker. Inevitably rebellions and uprisings against the Norman overlords followed the result of which was ongoing upgrades to Grosmont. In particular the castle was remodelled between 1201-22 when the then owner, Hubert de Burgh, rebuilt in stone to the latest continental design.
Grosmont was attacked by the Welsh in 1405 during the Owain Glyndŵr uprising but, due to a relief force being dispatched from Hereford by the future Henry V, failed to capture the castle. This was the last time the Welsh rose against Grosmont and by the sixteenth century it was in a ruinous condition.
References
There is a very good write up of the castle on the Wiki page here.
The CADW site with brief information for a visit to Grosmont Castle is here.
The historical summary above is copied from castlesfortsbattles.