© Mapbox · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Boundary data © Historic England (NHLE)
Penyard Castle is a late 12th-century ringwork and bailey fortress situated near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire. The castle comprises a circular earthwork bank and ditch enclosing approximately one acre, with an attached bailey to the east, representing a common defensive form of the Norman period in the Welsh Marches. The site was constructed during a period of intensive castle building in the region to secure English territorial interests along the Anglo-Welsh border. Today the castle survives as an upstanding earthwork monument, with the ramparts remaining substantially intact despite the absence of stone structures, providing evidence of medieval military architecture and settlement patterns in the borderlands.
Penyard Castle is a scheduled monument protected by Historic England under reference 1005385. View the official record →
Penyard Castle is a late 12th-century ringwork and bailey fortress situated near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic England (NHLE) under reference 1005385.
Penyard Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic England (NHLE) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in England. The official designation reference is 1005385.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Offa's Dyke: section 420m east of Stowfield Farm (5.9 km), Offa's Dyke: section 480m south east of Stowfield Farm (5.9 km), Offa's Dyke: section 120m south west of Stowfield Farm (6.2 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Penyard Castle's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Penyard Castle stands on Upper Devonian Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Late Devonian. The rock here is sandstone and conglomerate, interbedded.