Skenfrith Castle

Skenfrith Castle, Castell Ynysgynwraidd in Welsh, was built in the wake of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Shortly after the invasion the Normans pushed up into the Welsh Marches, where William the Conqueror made William fitz Osbern the Earl of Hereford, and Earl William added to his new lands by capturing the towns of Monmouth and Chepstow.

Skenfrith was one of a triangle of fortifications built in the Monnow valley around this time, possibly by Earl William himself, to protect the route from Wales to Hereford. The first castle on the site was of earth and timber. The earldom's landholdings in the region were slowly broken up after William's son Roger de Breteuil rebelled against the King in 1075. A major Welsh revolt followed in 1135, and in response King Stephen restructured the holdings along this stretch of the Marches, bringing Skenfrith and its sister fortifications of Grosmont and White Castle back under the control of the Crown as a lordship known as the "Three Castles".

Conflict with the Welsh continued. Following a period of detente under Henry II in the 1160s, the de Mortimer and de Braose Marcher families attacked their Welsh rivals during the 1170s, which led to a Welsh assault on nearby Abergavenny Castle in 1182. In response the Crown readied Skenfrith to face an attack: £43 was spent on the defences in 1186, followed by more work in 1190 that probably established a stone keep and curtain wall.

In 1201 King John gave the Three Castles to Hubert de Burgh, a minor landowner who had become John's household chamberlain while he was still a prince and rose to be an increasingly powerful royal official once John held the throne. Hubert began upgrading his new castles, starting with Grosmont, but was captured while fighting in France. During his captivity King John took the Three Castles back and gave them to William de Braose, a rival of Hubert's; John then fell out with William and dispossessed him in 1207, and de Braose's son, also called William, took the opportunity presented by the First Barons' War to retake the castles.

Once released, Hubert regained his grip on power, becoming royal justiciar and Earl of Kent, and finally recovered the Three Castles in 1219 under King Henry III. During his tenure Skenfrith was entirely rebuilt: the old castle was levelled and its 12th-century stone fortifications demolished. In their place rose a castle of Old Red Sandstone with round corner towers and a central circular keep, ringed by a stone-revetted, water-filled moat fed by the River Monnow. The keep closely resembled those built in the same period in France by Philip II and at Pembroke by William Marshal.

Hubert fell from power in 1232 and was stripped of the castles, which were placed under the command of the royal servant Walerund Teutonicus. Reconciled with the king in 1234, Hubert had them back briefly, then fell out with Henry III again in 1239; they were taken from him once more and assigned to Walerund.

Walerund built a new chapel at the castle in 1244 and repaired the keep's roof. In 1254 Skenfrith and its sister fortifications were granted to King Henry's eldest son and later king, Prince Edward.

The Welsh threat persisted. In 1262 the castle was readied in response to Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd's attack on Abergavenny; under its constable Gilbert Talbot, Skenfrith was ordered to be garrisoned "by every man, and at whatever cost". The threat passed without incident. In 1267 Edmund, Earl of Lancaster and capitaneus of the royal forces in Wales, was given the Three Castles.

King Edward I's conquest of Wales in 1282 removed much of Skenfrith's military utility, although it continued in use as an administrative centre. Little further building was done, though repairs were made to the tower and gates under King Henry VI. By 1538 the castle had fallen into disuse and then into ruin, and a description of 1613 called it "ruynous and decayed". The Three Castles stayed in the hands of the earldom, later duchy, of Lancaster until 1825, when they were sold to Henry Somerset, Duke of Beaufort.

Skenfrith was eventually acquired by the lawyer Harold Sands, who carried out some conservation and gave the castle to the National Trust. It was placed into the care of the state in 1936 and extensively repaired. The castle is managed by the Cadw heritage agency, and is protected as a scheduled monument, a National Monument of Wales and a Grade II* listed building, listed on 19 November 1953.