This small, two-storey gatehouse and the adjacent walls of a hall, now pleasantly landscaped and restored, are all that remain of the seat of the de Barry family. The castle was really little more than a small fortified manor house, built in the 13th and 14th centuries to replace an earlier earthwork. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

By the late 13th century the castle had two stone buildings on the east and west sides of a courtyard, but nothing now remains of these above ground. Early in the 14th century the castle was strengthened by the addition of a large hall and gatehouse on its south side, and the ruins of these can be seen today. <o:p></o:p>

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The gatehouse passage is arched, with a portcullis groove on the east side. As well as a portcullis it had a drawbridge and double doors. A small room above, whose outer wall and arched window survive, held the portcullis windlass and also probably a chapel. Behind the gate passage is a rectangular room with a blocked staircase on the southeast corner and an arrowslit on the east wall. The walls of the hall block to the west are much lower, with a low arched doorway and an arrowslit on the north side. The hall itself was on the first floor, and was heated by a fireplace on the north wall. There was a narrow mural stair in the southeast corner on to a wall-walk on the curtain wall, and a door, the bottom part of which is visible, in the east was leading to the portcullis chamber/chapel. There is evidence that the hall was roofed with Cornish slate, and had green glazed ridge tiles.

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