Historic SiteDenbighshireCadw3.7
Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.
No charge for anyone.
Cadw says parking and toilets are available at Denbigh Castle during castle opening times, with two charged Type 2 electric points in the castle car park, and the castle's access guide calls it a free car park with an accessible space; it holds about 15 cars up a narrow road and is only open in castle hours (10am to 5pm except Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 30 March to 1 November, Friday to Sunday 10am to 4pm in winter). Outside those hours use Denbighshire County Council's Vale Street short-stay or Factory Ward long-stay car parks about 300 m down the hill (Factory Ward: 30 minutes free, £1.50 an hour, £4.00 all day) or the free eight-space Mount Pleasant car park.
Driving pin: the tower itself, 5 m from Castle Hill lane and 84 m from Denbigh Castle's stored pin at its car park; the Earl of Leicester's Church is 67 m north-east on Bull Lane. By road: Denbigh via the A525, A543 or B5382. Buses 151 and 152 from Rhyl stop 300 m away; rail at Abergele, 12 km; National Cycle Network route 5 passes 17 km away.
St Hilary's Chapel, Capel Hilari, is the lone battlemented tower of Denbigh's original place of worship, standing on an open green beside the lane that climbs to the castle. Built inside the town walls around the beginning of the 14th century to serve the English settlers of Edward I's new borough, and called the chapel within the walls by 1334, it remained in use until St Mary's church replaced it in 1874; all but the tower and a short stretch of the west wall was demolished in 1923. The three-stage tower stands 15 metres high with two-light belfry openings on every side and a 15th-century parapet with gargoyles, and its crypt housed a charity school from 1711 and the town's grammar school from 1727. On 28 September 1645, during the Civil War, a service here was attended by King Charles I and the Archbishop of York. Visitors take a quick look on the way up to the castle, whose car park and toilets are 80 metres further on.
Open all year and viewed externally during reasonable daylight hours; the tower interior is not open. No admission charge and no castle ticket needed. Cadw may close monuments at short notice in extreme weather.
Terrain level 1, accessible: level mown grass beside a tarmac lane. Toilets at the castle visitor centre during castle hours. Drones are not permitted.
Dogs: Cadw: 'Dogs welcome'; an open-air exterior-only site at ground level on a public green, with no lead sentence on the page. Cadw's Denbigh Town Walls page says dogs are welcome on the walls, which are walked by key from the castle.
Photo: The battlemented tower of St Hilary's Chapel on the green below Denbigh Castle, with autumn woods and the Vale of Clwyd behind. Jeff Buck, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tower_of_St_Hilary%27s_Chapel,_Denbigh_-_geograph.org.uk_-_4702616.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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Short town walk from the castle past St Hilary's Chapel and Lord Leicester's Church, along Leicester Terrace to the Burgess Gate, down to the High Street and back up Bull Lane through the town walls to the Countess and Goblin towers and through the woods to the castle car park; ask the castle custodian for the town walls key and lock the gates behind you. Free; a 2012 article whose key arrangement is still current.
Dog access not confirmed
1.25 miles (2 km), about 75 minutes, from Factory Place car park (LL16 3TS) with ten stops including the Burgess Gate, the town walls (key from the castle), Leicester's Church, St Hilary's Chapel and the castle; some moderate uphill sections and uneven surfaces on the walls. Free.
