Monmouth Castle

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.

ParkingPay to park

No parking at the castle; Monmouthshire County Council's Glendower Street short-stay pay and display car park, 240 m away, £2.30 for two hours and £3.30 for four, Sunday first two hours free. Not a Trust car park, so membership does not cover it.

Parking details

Cadw says to park in Monmouth town centre at the council's pay and display car parks, the nearest being Glendower Street: 121 spaces, nine disabled bays and four electric chargers, short stay with a four-hour maximum, charged 8am to 6pm at £2.30 for the first two hours, £2.70 for three and £3.30 for four, with the first two hours free on Sundays (council notice effective 16 April 2026); pay at the machine or by PayByPhone. The parade ground beside the castle is behind a military barrier and is not public parking. Long-stay car parks at the Cattle Market, Chippenham and Wyebridge Street charge up to £7 all day, and Rockfield Road and the Rowing Club car parks are free.

Driving pin: the Glendower Street car park, 243 m from Cadw's marker; walk west through Agincourt Square and up the steep lane of Castle Hill beside Iceland. By road: Monmouth town centre, off the A40. National Cycle Network route 423 passes 0.5 km away.

About

Monmouth Castle, Castell Trefynwy, is tucked away in a lane off Monmouth's main shopping street, and only a few fragments remain of a once-important castle: the ruins of the 12th-century Great Tower and the 13th-century hall. Founded in the 11th century by the Norman lord William fitz Osbern, it was held by the mid-14th century by Henry of Grosmont, who gave the tower the large windows still outlined in its east wall, and on 16 September 1386 King Henry V was born here, an event commemorated in Agincourt Square below. Partly demolished in 1647, the castle became the setting for Great Castle House of 1673, now the headquarters of the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers, whose free Regimental Museum beside the ruins opens on afternoons from April to October. Reviewers find little to see but combine it with the town and the military vehicles outside the museum; the castle has no parking, so use the Glendower Street car park and walk up the steep lane. Dogs on short leads are welcome.

Open in daylightFrom Cadw's published times

Open any reasonable time in daylight

Opening times may change at short notice.

The ruins are open all year during reasonable daylight hours; no admission charge. The Castle and Regimental Museum beside them, run by volunteers, is free and opens 1pm to 4pm daily from 1 April to 31 October or by arrangement (01600 614509); Great Castle House is the regiment's headquarters and is not open to visitors. Cadw may close monuments at short notice in extreme weather.

Terrain level 1, accessible, though the lane up from Agincourt Square is quite steep; the site has areas of height and ditches with guardrails and uneven historic steps with handrails. No toilets at the castle or museum; the nearest public toilets are in Agincourt Street across the square. Drones are not permitted.

Dogs: Dogs on short leads are welcome at the ruins, an open-air site at ground level with no upper levels for visitors.

Photo: The ruined Great Tower of Monmouth Castle, with its stair turret and later Gothic window, rising above the grass of the castle site with a town house beside it. Colin Smith, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monmouth_Castle_-_geograph.org.uk_-_7574558.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.