Fodor's Expert Review Abergavenny Castle and Museum

Built early in the 11th century, this castle witnessed a tragic event on Christmas Day, 1176: the Norman knight William de Braose invited the neighboring Welsh chieftains to a feast, and in a crude attempt to gain control of the area, had them all slaughtered as they sat to dine. The Welsh retaliated and virtually demolished the castle. Most of what now remains dates from the 13th and 14th centuries. The castle's 19th-century hunting lodge houses an excellent museum of regional history. There's a re-created saddler's shop and a World War II air-raid shelter, but the Victorian Welsh farmhouse kitchen, with its old utensils and butter molds, is perhaps the most diverting exhibit.