The castle is currently being restored to a corporate retreat,
so is currently covered in scaffolding and sheeting. It is supposed
to be ready by May 2011!!!
History
Built by Norman knight Adam de Rupe in the second half of the 12th
century, probably on the site of an earlier wooden structure. Roche
is the usual French word for ‘Rock’, while rupestre
signifies ‘a plant growing among rocks'
After the deRupe family died out in the 15th century, the Castle
was taken over eventually in the 17th century by the Walter family.
Their daughter Lucy was born in the castle, and later became a
courtesan of Charles II, and bore him an acknowledged son James,
the first Duke of Monmouth.
During the English Civil War, the Walter family declared for
King Charles I. Although Pembrokeshire was initially Royalist, the
Puritans gained the upper hand. The castle changed hands twice,
before the Walter family fled when it was captured for a second
time by the Parliamentary forces and subsequently burned in 1644.
It lay dormant and unclaimed until the return of James, who led and
was captured at the Battle of Sedgemoor, and then beheaded on Tower
Hill during the Bloody Assizes.
After the Civil War it slowly fell into ruin until it was
restored with a steel frame and new concrete floor in 1900 by the
first Viscount St David's, friend and frequent host to Lord
Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts movement, and to David
Lloyd George, Great Britain's Prime Minister from 1916 to 1922.
From the late 1970’s the castle was a holiday let. In 2008
it was bought by its current owners.
Cache has now been replaced with a magnatic nano near the
castle, please bring your own pen!!!