Qualla: Skenfrith Castle https://qualla.com/skenfrith-castle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/n/p/skenfrith-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Skenfrith Castle https://qualla.com/skenfrith-castle Skenfrith Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/skenfrith-castle/ Photo credit Jeremy Bolwell, CC BY-SA 2.0. Stand by the River Monnow at Skenfrith village and a small circular keep rises out of a polygonal stone enclosure, twelve metres of weathered Old Red Sandstone, surrounded by walls that fall casually away into a now-grassy moat. It looks modest. It is. But Skenfrith is one of the Three Castles, a triangle of Norman fortifications, Skenfrith, Grosmont, and White Castle, scattered through the Monmouth countryside to control the road from Wales to Hereford. King John gave the trio in 1201 to a man named Hubert de Burgh, who would briefly become the most powerful subject in England. Today the castle is empty grass and weather-worn walls, a Cadw site you can walk through for free. The river runs past it the way it has run for nine hundred years.

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Image: Jeremy Bolwell | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/n/p/skenfrith-castle-wp/gcnp-skenfrith-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Skenfrith Castle: After Hastings https://qualla.com/skenfrith-castle/ Photo credit Cornishstrongbitter at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Less than a year after Hastings, William the Conqueror was already pushing west into Wales. He made one of his closest allies, William fitz Osbern, the Earl of Hereford and let him loose along the border. FitzOsbern captured Monmouth and Chepstow. Somewhere between 1067 and 1071,...

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Image: Cornishstrongbitter at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/n/p/skenfrith-castle-wp/gcnp-skenfrith-castle-after-hastings.mp3 0:06 2 full Skenfrith Castle: Hubert de Burgh's Rectangle https://qualla.com/skenfrith-castle/ Photo credit Pauline Eccles, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1201 King John handed the Three Castles to Hubert de Burgh, then his household chamberlain, soon his most trusted official. Hubert started rebuilding at Grosmont, then was captured fighting in France and disappeared from the picture for several years. Once released, he picked ...

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Image: Pauline Eccles | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/n/p/skenfrith-castle-wp/gcnp-skenfrith-castle-hubert-de-burghs-rectangle.mp3 0:06 3 full Skenfrith Castle: Llywelyn at the Gate https://qualla.com/skenfrith-castle/ Photo credit Jeremy Bolwell, CC BY-SA 2.0. Through the thirteenth century, the Welsh princes had not given up. In 1262, when Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd attacked Abergavenny, Skenfrith Castle was urgently readied; its constable, Gilbert Talbot, received orders to garrison it "by every man, and at whatever cost." That phra...

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Image: Jeremy Bolwell | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/n/p/skenfrith-castle-wp/gcnp-skenfrith-castle-llywelyn-at-the-gate.mp3 0:06 4 full Skenfrith Castle: Lawyer's Gift https://qualla.com/skenfrith-castle/ Photo credit Andrew Lewis, CC BY-SA 2.0. For nearly four centuries Skenfrith Castle was an antiquarian curiosity, a stone shell in a fold of the Monnow valley used as a sheep pen and occasionally drawn by visiting watercolourists. It belonged to the Earl of Lancaster's earldom and then the duchy of Lancaster, which kept...

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Image: Andrew Lewis | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/n/p/skenfrith-castle-wp/gcnp-skenfrith-castle-lawyers-gift.mp3 0:06 5 full