Key facts
- Operator
- English Heritage
- Condition
- Intact
- Access
- Grounds only
- Stays
- Overnight accommodation available
Pinpoint
Church St, St Briavels, Lydney GL15 6TA
Telephone 0370 333 1181
Website www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/st-briavels-castle
Possible Opening hours
Opening times change. Always check the official website before you travel.
| Monday | 1:00 – 4:00 PM |
| Tuesday | 1:00 – 4:00 PM |
| Wednesday | 1:00 – 4:00 PM |
| Thursday | 1:00 – 4:00 PM |
| Friday | 1:00 – 4:00 PM |
| Saturday | 1:00 – 4:00 PM |
| Sunday | 1:00 – 4:00 PM |
A 12th-century royal stronghold on the Welsh border, once the administrative centre for the Forest of Dean hunting ground, with a striking twin-towered gatehouse added by Edward I in 1292. It's now a YHA hostel, so the bailey is only open to casual visitors between 11am and 4pm — and reviewers who've stayed overnight describe an interior that feels more like hostel accommodation than a historic attraction.
Worth the trip
The 1292 twin-towered gatehouse, the castle's most substantial surviving medieval feature.
Before you go
The bailey's opening hours are narrow, roughly 11am-4pm, and reviewers report it can look and feel closed even within that window — check before making a special trip, and know that as a working hostel, the interior is more functional than atmospheric.
Reviews for St Briavels are genuinely mixed. Several reviewers enjoyed its rich medieval and Marcher-lord history and 13th-century gatehouse, but multiple others were disappointed to find the castle now operates largely as a youth hostel, meaning there's little to see or do inside beyond the exterior, and a couple of visits happened when the site felt closed or quiet. Worth a quick look if passing, several suggest, but perhaps not a destination in its own right.
YHA hostel; bailey usually open 11am-4pm
“Lovely old castle being revived... we just walked about, but pretty much looked closed. We visited Sunday 23rd Nov at 15:00 is, and it was dead. We took a look inside the open gates regardless, lovely old castle steeped…”— Rick Gregory, visitor review
