Carew Castle is justly celebrated as one of the most magnificent castles of south Wales. Its position is low-lying, but still prominent in the flat land around the tidal reaches of the Carew river. The castle stands at the end of a ridge at a strategically excellent site commanding a crossing point of the then-still navigable river.
The modern entrance to the castle is from the east, following the medieval route through the bailey, within which lie low grassy footings of the later medieval service buildings. These were protected by a gatehouse, a wall and a massive rock-cut ditch. Excavations have shown that this ditch was in fact a recut of a much earlier one, dug as part of a defensive system cutting off the ridge in pre-Norman, perhaps Iron Age times.