About
Chepstow Castle, Castell Cas-gwent, stretches along a limestone cliff above the River Wye like a history lesson in stone, and Cadw says there is no better place in Britain to see how castles evolved to cope with new weaponry. Building began in 1067 under Earl William fitz Osbern, close friend of William the Conqueror, making it one of the first Norman strongholds in Wales, and the Great Tower may have been commissioned by the Conqueror himself in 1081. William Marshal rebuilt the gatehouse and bailey defences from the 1190s, Roger Bigod added Marten's Tower, and Tudor apartments followed before two Civil War sieges; the regicide Henry Marten died a prisoner here in 1680. Three grassed baileys, the Great Hall, kitchen, prison and wall walks fill about 90 minutes, and reviewers praise the river views and the deckchairs; the approach climbs steadily and the tower stairs are steep. Dogs on short leads may explore the ground level, and the Wye Valley Walk ends beside the castle.
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- Chepstow Castle09:30 – 17:00last admission 16:30
Opening times may change at short notice.
Open daily all year: 1 March to 30 June 9.30am to 5pm; 1 July to 31 August 9.30am to 6pm; 1 September to 31 October 9.30am to 5pm; 1 November to 28 February 10am to 4pm. Last admission 30 minutes before closing. Closed 24, 25 and 26 December and 1 January. On Wednesday 21 October 2026 the castle opens late, at 10am. Cadw may close monuments at short notice in extreme weather.
Terrain level 3, moderate: the ticket office is just inside the main gatehouse at the lower end, and a long path runs the length of the castle on a steady incline, steeper towards the Great Tower, with 12 benches inside and deckchairs; the lower, middle and upper baileys, the upper barbican (over a slatted bridge), the Great Tower, Great Hall, kitchen, service passage and old doors are step-free, the prison, latrines and the ground floor of Marten's Tower have a few steps, and the towers, cellar and wall walks are up staircases of five or more steps; the rear wall walk is high, narrow and a dead end; gravel and cobbles can defeat some mobility scooters. No toilets in the monument (public toilets in the car park). Audio guide to buy on arrival (free for Cadw members), portable induction loop, defibrillator, dog bowl, 12 picnic tables, pram parking, gift shop with guidebooks, free Wi-Fi; no cafe. Gulls roost in season. Drones are not permitted.
Dogs: Dogs on short leads are welcome all year on the ground-floor levels; the towers and wall walks are for assistance dogs only. The Wye Valley Walk, which ends at the Tourist Information Centre beside the castle, admits dogs on the line of the path, on a short lead through livestock fields and near farmyards, and warns that not every stile is passable for dogs.
Photo: The entrance front of Chepstow Castle, with Marten's Tower on the left and the twin-towered main gatehouse on the right, under a summer sky. Rory Lawton, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:View_of_entry_side_of_Chepstow_Castle,_Chepstow_Gwent,_on_28th_July_2018.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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Walking routes3 routes
Caldicot Castle to Chepstow Castle (Wales Coast Path)(opens the full route on the National Trust site)
WalkDog access not confirmed15 km distance
