The name derives from the ruined "tut", a local term for watchtower, on top of the hill overlooking the River Wye and its ancient crossing point at Castleford. and also having a distant view of the River Severn and estuary. The tower is of uncertain date, and has been suggested as either an Anglo-Norman watchtower linked to Chepstow Castle, or a later windmill. A windmill overlooking the Wye above Chapelhouse Wood is recorded in 1584. It may have been later adapted as a folly, leading to a local tradition that the ruined mill had been a look-out tower.