Parking

At Llantilio Crossenny Church. SO 398 149

Directions

1. At the entrance to the churchyard with your back to the church, take the footpath to your right. Where it comes out onto the road, cross over and take the lane ahead of you past the Old Court and Moat. Follow the lane for about 1.5 miles to White Castle.
2. Retrace your steps back down the lane . Just after Middle White Castle Farm look for a stile in the bank on the left. This is part of the Three Castles Walk. Pay attention to the footpath waymarks (brown castle motif and name on white disc) as they can be difficult to see when going through wood and crossing fields.
3. At the road, turn right and pass Middle Cwm Farm. Take the next footpath on the right, cross two fields and a piece of woodland. Walk under power-lines and cross two more fields following waymarks (no longer Three Castles) to reach the road.
4. Cross the road and take the footpath opposite to return to the church.

Points of Interest

White Castle is the best preserved of the Three Castles, namely, White, Skenfrith and Grosmont. The heart of this castle is surrounded by powerful round towers.

The Three Castles are usually grouped together because for a large part of their history they were part of a block of territory under the control of a single lord, Hubert de Burgh.

Hubert had gleaned a great deal about military architecture from his time fighting in France. He rebuilt Skenfrith and Grosmont in stone, adding domestic apartments to both castles, so that they could be used as lordly residences. However, this doesn’t seem to have been the case with White. Rather than a nobleman’s residence, it seems to have been built for military work. A workhorse of a castle, you might say. The internal buildings did, however, include a chapel, hall and kitchen, but were more befitting a garrison commander than a great lord.

After Hubert de Burgh, the Three Castles were held in royal hands, and in 1254 Henry III granted them to his eldest son, the future Edward I.

The moat at Old Court or Hen Cwrt is all that remains of what was probably a manorial site belonging to the bishops of Llandaff in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, later used as a hunting lodge.

The Church of St Teilo dates from the 13th century and is best described as a 'baby cathedral' due to its large size and tall pointed spire. It contains a Green Man figure above an aisle.

Map