Roch Castle stands on a single crag of rock that sticks out of the flat country between Haverfordwest and Newgale, a tower visible for miles. It was built by the Norman family de Rupe, or de la Roche, and the story told about why its first lord chose such a spot is one of Pembrokeshire's best known curses.
Adam de Rupe, the tale goes, offended a local woman who had the name of a witch. She told him plainly that before a year was out he would die from the bite of an adder. Adam took the threat seriously. He had his castle built on the highest rock he could find and shut himself up in its topmost room, refusing to come down for the whole year, through a winter when no adder would be stirring. As the last day approached he began to think the witch had only been trying to frighten him. On the final night he was cold and called for a fire, and a servant carried up a bundle of sticks from the store. Hidden among them was an adder asleep for the winter. The warmth of the fire woke it, and it slid out and bit Adam as he slept. He was dead by morning, and the prophecy was fulfilled to the day.
The same shape of story, a doomed man walling himself away from a foretold death which reaches him anyway, turns up across Europe. At Roch it is attached to a real family and a very striking building, and it is told on the National Park's Land of Legends trail. The castle today is a luxury hotel, which also carries the story of a second ghost, Lucy Walter.
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