Live, local weather for Manorbier, Wales
Manorbier, Wales
Updated 23 February 2012 07:00
Cloudy | 10°C | High: 10°C
Low: 9°C
Wind: 18 kph
Humidity: 99%
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Friday
12° / 7° |
Saturday
11° / 8° | 
Sunday
11° / 9° |
Monday
10° / 9° |
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Opening Times
Daily from 8th April 2011 - 1st October 2011.
10.00am to 6.00pm
The castle will also be closed on the following dates/times due to private functions - Saturday 2nd July (closed 2-6pm), Friday 8th July (closed 10-1), Saturday 9th July (closed all day), Sunday 10th July (closed 10-1), Friday 15th July (closed 10-1), Saturday 16th July (closed all day), Sunday 11th July (closed 10-1), Saturday 23rd July closed (1-6pm). Open half term 22nd-30th October. Admission
£4.00 adults | £1.50 children | £3.00 senior citizens
Dogs admitted on leads. Convenient parking.
Excellent local transport - Bus no. 349 Tenby-Haverfordwest stops at the gate. Train station 3/4 mile away.
Castle Telephone: 01834 871394 (Seasonal)
Website: Manorbier Castle Phone: Location & Map: SA70  Manorbier village 
Manorbier village - remainings of Victoria  
There are also some old lime kilns near the sites of quarries and a restored version in Mud Lane shows how they looked originally. There is also an area of strip lynchets and fields dating back to early Anglo Saxon times and perhaps as early as the Bronze age which are to the east of the town alongside the road to Lydstep. There is a higher concentration near Manorbier Newton to the north west. Modern day Manorbier has become well known as a tourist spot and as a surfing site. Attractions in the village include Manorbier Castle, and a popular beach in the cove about half a mile to the south west of the village. Manorbier also lies in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, and there are plenty of places for people to stay including Manorbier Country Park | Manorbier Castle, Manorbier village, Pembrokshire - Castles of Wales ________________________________________________________________________________
Forts & Castles You will find a rich network of Celtic, Roman and Medieval castles, fortifications and historical sites - in fact, there are more than six hundred heritage sites in Wales. Their number and variety reflecting the nation's turbulent and fascinating history. Manorbier Castle is a Norman castle located in the village of Manorbier, five miles south-west of Tenby, West Wales. The castle also represents the harsher realities of life with the Normans and the subjugation of the local Welsh populace. 
Manorbier is a rectangular enclosure castle, curtain walls, and round and square towers. Its tower gateway was protected by a great door and portcullis as well as roof embrasures. There was no moat as the castle stands on a natural promontory facing the coast. A postern gate provided access to the beach and boats. 
There was an outer ward that was defended by earthworks but no barbican. The main gateway to the inner ward is across a bridge and dry moat. The south-east tower is round but the north-east one is angular. The domestic range of the castle had kitchens, apartments and a Great hall that was built in the 1140s. Arrowslits were replaced by windows in the domestic range. 
The Chapel, which was built around 1260, has elaborate vaulting and plaster-work. Some of the original medieval frescoes can still be seen. 
The castle was originally built on land granted to Odo de Barri, a Norman knight, at the end of the 11th century. Initially he constructed a Motte-and-bailey on the site which had a wooden keep defended by a palisade and earthworks embankments. But it was Odo's son, William de Barri, who began work on the stone fortification in the early part of the 12th century. 
In 1146 Gerald of Wales, the great twelfth century scholar known as Geraldus Cambrensis was born at the castle. As the fourth son of William de Barri, he was related on his mothers's side, to the legendary Welsh princess Nest verch Rhys. Gerald wrote of his birthplace: In all the broad lands of Wales, Manorbier is the most pleasant place by far.
In the castle's history, it was only attacked twice; both were minor skirmishes. In 1327, Richard de Barri assaulted Manorbier in a dispute over family succession. Then 300 years later during the English Civil War, the castle was seized in 1645 by Parliamentarian forces. It was then slighted to prevent further use by the Royalists. 
Through the 17th and 18th centuries Manorbier was allowed to decay. However in 1880, the castle was partially restored by J.R.Cobb, a tenant who carried out repairs on the buildings and walls. 
The castle is open to the public. Along with the castle, there are also gardens, dovecote and mill. The castle was used as Cair Paravel by the BBC in an adaption of The Chronicles of Narnia. The 2003 film I Capture the Castle was shot entirely on location at the castle. The Norman knight Odo de Barri was granted the lands of Manorbier, Penally and Begelly in gratitude for his military help in conquering Pembrokeshire after 1003. The first castle was motte and bailey style, with the stone walls added the next century by later Normans. Giraldus Cambrensis, son of William de Barri, was born in the village in 1146, calling it "the pleasantest place in Wales". Fossils can be found along the stream bed, although some are of poor quality, and along the cliffs to the side of the beach the rock formations are revealed as vertical beds. The evidence of early human habitation consist of many flint microliths, housed in museums around the area, from the Mesolithic and Neolithic ages. The King's Quoit cromlech is the most notable monument in the local area and is to be found to the south east of Manorbier bay and beach. Later evidence points to occupation of The Dak with the finding of a perforated mace head as well as Bronze age burial mounds on the Ridgeway. Fortifications also seem to have been prominent including an Iron Age enclosure near Manorbier station and the site of a multivallate, meaning multiple ditches, promontory fort at Old Castle Head where there are remains of hut platforms within the ditches. 
Norman Church, near Manorbier Castle - (c) EventPicture.co.uk - Please see our note |