Castell Machen

The castle stands on two natural rocky knolls on a south-facing ledge. These two rock-topped platforms formed the inner core on the south side of an enclosed area, and they are separated from a large northern outer court by a deep ditch. The enclosed area measures roughly 56 metres from east to west and between 30 and 56 metres from north to south, while a northern bailey of about 60 metres square lies beyond the ditch. The northern court is overlooked by higher ground to the north, a factor that has been noted in assessments of the site’s defensive siting.

On the smaller eastern rock there is the remains of a circular keep, about ten metres across, whose masonry walls survive to a ruined height and are approximately two metres thick. A latrine chute survives that discharged from the tower down the cliff to the south. On the larger western knoll the foundations record a substantial residential building or hall, about eighteen by ten metres in size. These two knolls served as the castle’s core living and defensive areas.

Surviving fabric is largely composed of masonry footings, though the castle has been described in records both as a timber stronghold and as a masonry-built place at different times. A deep ditch and a separating wall divided the inner core from the outer northern bailey; that outer enclosure was probably added after Gilbert Marshal’s capture in the 1230s when the place was refortified with a bailey and curtain wall. The remains are fragmentary, with stone foundations visible in situ, and the site is protected as a Scheduled Monument, recorded as an Ancient Monument in the modern heritage register.