The de Barri family built a timber motte and bailey here at the end of the eleventh century and rebuilt it in local limestone in the twelfth. It was hardly ever attacked, which is why so much of it survives: curtain walls, round and square towers, a gatehouse, a great hall and a chapel of around 1260. Gerald of Wales was born here in 1146.
The castle was slighted after the Civil War, partly restored in the 1880s, and is still privately owned. It opens to visitors in season, with gardens, a café and a dovecote and mill below, and closes in winter. Check opening times before you go.