Chepstow Castle, (CADW)

Toilets; disabled car parking 75 yards from the Castle which is approached via sloped path. There is s steep slope to the entrance, and steps to ticket office; ground floor of the castle can be accessed via an alternative gate.

The mighty fortress of Chepstow has guarded the route from England into South Wales for more than nine centuries. Its beginnings date from immediately after the Norman conquest, when the Conqueror's trusted friend William fitz Osbern built the earliest surviving stone keep in Britain astride a narrow ridge high above the river Wye.
The famous hero William Marshal added a bailey with new-style round towers in about 1200 and during the following century his sons and successors extended the fortress with walls, gatehouses and barbicans until it covered the whole ridge from end to end. So powerful was the result that Chepstow continued in use until 1690, being finally adapted for cannon and musketry after an epic Civil War siege. Scarcely a castle in Britain, therefore, illustrates the developing story of fortification better than Chepstow.

A favourite subject for artists from Turner onwards, this huge, grand castle deserves a lengthy visit.