Photo: Waterborough (CC BY-SA 3.0)Cilgerran Castle
CastleTwin drum towers on a crag above the Teifi gorge — the castle that launched a thousand Romantic paintings, Turner's included.
- Website
- cadw.gov.wales
Castles in Pembrokeshire
26 castles across 17 Pembrokeshire towns and villages.
Pembrokeshire is one of the most heavily castled corners of Britain, and for a specific reason: the Landsker line. After the Norman conquest of the south, a chain of castles was built across the county to hold the boundary between Norman-English "Little England beyond Wales" in the south and Welsh Pembrokeshire in the north. You can still hear the line today in place names and, in places, in language.
Three groups are worth separating. The great medieval castles — Pembroke, Manorbier, Carew, Cilgerran, Picton — are the ones to build a day around. The small mottes and ruins scattered across the farmland are mostly for enthusiasts and are often on private land. And the Victorian sea forts guarding the Milford Haven waterway — Stack Rock, Thorn Island, West Blockhouse, Chapel Bay — are a separate, later story: Palmerston's answer to a French invasion that never came.
By town and village
Our picks
Our own picks. Nobody pays to be here.
Photo: Waterborough (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo: Cered (CC BY-SA 2.0)Haverfordwest Castle
CastleThe castle on the crag above the county town — emerging from a £24m regeneration that has kept it closed, with the town museum decamped to Riverside Quay meanwhile.
- Website
- pembrokeshire.gov.uk
Photo: Tony Grant (CC BY-SA 2.0)Manorbier Castle
CastleThe Norman castle above Manorbier beach — birthplace of Gerald of Wales, who called this 'the pleasantest spot in Wales', and it's hard to argue.
- Website
- manorbiercastle.co.uk
Photo: Morris (Public domain)Picton Castle & Gardens
CastleA lived-in medieval castle turned Georgian mansion outside Haverfordwest, with 40 acres of woodland gardens — one of the county's two great garden days out.
- Website
- pictoncastle.co.uk
Photo: Thomas Nicholls (Public domain)Upton Castle Gardens
CastleThirty-five acres of gardens and arboretum around a private medieval castle on the Cleddau — the county's quietest fine garden.
- Website
- uptoncastle.com
Photo: Lucy Sheers (CC BY-SA 4.0)The best-preserved motte-and-bailey in Wales — a perfect grassy castle mound with a shell keep, free, in a quiet village east of Haverfordwest.
- Website
- cadw.gov.wales
Every castle, by town and village
Haverfordwest
4 castlesNewport (Trefdraeth)
3 castles- Nevern Castle (Castell Nanhyfer)
- Newport Castle
- Newport Castle (site)
Angle
3 castles- Stack Rock Fort
- Thorn Island Fort
- Tower House
Milford Haven
2 castles- Fort Popton
- Hubberston Fort
Solva
1 castle- Pointz Castle
Little Haven
1 castle- Broadmoor Rath
Dale
1 castle- West Blockhouse Fort
Manorbier
1 castleFishguard & Goodwick
1 castle- Fishguard Fort
Pembroke
1 castlePembroke Dock
1 castle- Defensible Barracks
Wiseman's Bridge
1 castle- Hean Castle
Amroth
1 castle- Amroth Castle
Lawrenny
1 castle- Benton Castle
Roch
1 castleAlso in Things to Do
Location data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Hygiene ratings from the Food Standards Agency (Open Government Licence v3.0). Details come from open data and can go out of date, so check with the venue before you travel. Spotted a mistake?