Raglan Castle

Raglan Castle
Monmouthshire, Wales
Raglan Castle, main gatehouse, south-east front
Raglan Castle
Coordinates	51°46′13″N 2°51′08″W / 51.7703°N 2.8521°W / 51.7703; -2.8521
Grid reference	grid reference SO413083
Site information
Owner	Duke of Beaufort
Controlled by	Cadw
Open to the public	Yes
Condition	Ruined
Site history
Materials	Redbrook Sandstone, Old Red Sandstone, Bath Stone
Battles/wars	Siege of 1646 during the First English Civil War
Listed Building – Grade I
Designated	19 November 1953
Reference no.	2101
Scheduled monument
Designated	9 February 1948
Reference no.	MM005
Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales
Designated	1 February 2022
Reference no.	PGW(Gt)42(MON)
Listing	Grade I

Raglan Castle (Welsh: Castell Rhaglan) is a late medieval castle located just north of the village of Raglan in the county of Monmouthshire in south east Wales. The modern castle dates from between the 15th and early 17th centuries, when the successive ruling families of the Herberts and the Somersets created a luxurious, fortified castle, complete with a large hexagonal keep, known as the Great Tower or the Yellow Tower of Gwent. Surrounded by parkland, water gardens and terraces, the castle was considered by contemporaries to be the equal of any other in England or Wales.

During the First English Civil War, Raglan was occupied by a Royalist garrison on behalf of Charles I but was taken by Parliamentarian forces in 1646 and its walls slighted, or deliberately put beyond military use. After the Stuart Restoration in 1660, the Somersets declined to restore it and it became first a source of local building materials, then a romantic ruin. It is now a tourist attraction.