Dorstone Castle
Encyclopedia
Dorstone Castle was in the village of Dorstone
Dorstone
Dorstone is a village within the Golden Valley, Herefordshire, England. There is a thriving community with a church and public house with restaurant. The Golden Valley area offers excellent hillwalking and horseback riding countryside and is noted for its scenery...

 in Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, located 6 miles to the east of Hay-on-Wye
Hay-on-Wye
Hay-on-Wye , often described as "the town of books", is a small market town and community in Powys, Wales.-Location:The town lies on the east bank of the River Wye and is within the Brecon Beacons National Park, just north of the Black Mountains...

.

Motte and bailey

This was a motte and bailey castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 which probably originated in the 12th century when the site was held by the de Sollers family.

Strengthened against Owain

In 1403 Henry IV
Henry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...

 entrusted the castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 to Sir Walter Fitzwalter, a Baron FitzWalter
Baron FitzWalter
Baron FitzWalter is an ancient title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1295 for Robert FitzWalter. The title was created by writ, which means that it can descend through both male and female lines. His great-grandson, the fourth Baron, was an Admiral of the Fleet. His grandson, the...

, and asked him to strengthen it against likely raids by Welsh
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...

 forces of Owain Glyndŵr
Owain Glyndwr
Owain Glyndŵr , or Owain Glyn Dŵr, anglicised by William Shakespeare as Owen Glendower , was a Welsh ruler and the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales...

.

After this time Dorstone Castle changed hands several times. Lady Fitzwalter died about 1422 and afterwards the castle belonged to Richard de la Mare of the de la Mare family and was then owned by the Lysters who sold it to Morgan Aubrey. It was then purchased by the Cornewall
Cornewall Baronets
The Amyand, later Cornewall Baronetcy of Moccas Court, in the County of Hereford , was created in the Baronetage of Great Britain on 9 August 1764 for George Amyand, who was a Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in the House of Commons of Great Britain....

 family of nearby Moccas
Moccas
Moccas is a village and civil parish in the English county of Herefordshire. It is located west of Hereford.The parish is mainly farmland with a number of woods, including Woodbury Hill Wood and the Moccas Park Deer Park...

 Court in 1780.

Only the earthworks now remain.
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