Longtown Castle
Longtown Castle near Longtown in Herefordshire is a ruined twelfth-century castle of early Norman date, notable for its rare cylindrical keep, one of the earliest round keeps in England built around 1210 when this form was being developed as an alternative to the square tower. The castle was associated with the de Lacy family, who were among the most powerful of the Anglo-Norman marcher lords controlling the frontier between England and Wales. The cylindrical keep at Longtown is an unusually early example of the round tower form that became fashionable in castle design in the early thirteenth century. The castle is managed by English Heritage and is freely accessible in the Black Mountains foothills close to the English-Welsh border. The surrounding Golden Valley of Herefordshire provides one of the most scenically attractive rural landscapes on the Welsh Marches.