Hanbury Arms, Caerleon

Hanbury Arms

Uskside, Caerleon, Newport

Grade B · Building datedTrading · checked Sept 2026

Hanbury Arms is locally dated 1565. No earlier record has been found.

Claimed

1565

First record

none found

Building

no single date

The building. Stone rubble under lime-wash with thick walls and a stone fireplace, built in the C16 as Ty Glyndwr, a townhouse of the Morgan family; the Round Tower of Caerleon castle forms part of the premises — we give it no single date because no dated fabric was traced; the house is given as C16 and the Round Tower is a remnant of the castle.

Riverside

Food

Real ale

Literary

The claim

A long, low, lime-washed pub on the Usk below Caerleon's Roman walls, with connected drinking and dining rooms, a bay window over the water and a plaque to Tennyson beside it. The ruined Round Tower of the castle stands in the grounds. Brains and Marston's ales, food all day, and the Roman amphitheatre a short walk uphill.

What the records show

The 1565 is neither the inn's, which publishes nothing we could find, nor CAMRA's, which gives the 16th century and no year. HistoryPoints, the Welsh local-history project behind the QR plaques on buildings, states that most of this riverside inn dates from about 1565, with the rear section rebuilt probably in the 18th century and the windows reshaped in the early 19th, and that it began as a town house for the Morgan family known as Ty Glyndwr. Thick stone walls, the stone fireplace and the Round Tower of Caerleon castle forming part of the premises support the claimed age of the building, which is a grade B. It was not a drinking house then, and the two accounts of when it became one disagree: HistoryPoints has it an inn during the 17th century, close to the quay on the Usk, while Wikipedia has the Hanburys buying it in the 1720s and the pub taking their arms for its name around the 1750s, which is the date this row records for drink-led use and the reason it is outside the Top 100. Neither account cites a record, and the earlier one would put the house back in the ranking, so it is a question still open rather than a change made. Tennyson began the Idylls of the King while lodging here in 1856.

What to look for inside

The Round Tower of Caerleon castle forms part of the premises
Tennyson began the Idylls of the King while lodging here in 1856
Brewed its own beer until the brewery merged with Eastern Valleys in 1910

Visiting

Hanbury Arms is in Caerleon, Wales, at Uskside, Caerleon, Newport. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

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