Castell Coch (Welsh pronunciation is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built above the village of Tongwynlais in South Wales. The first castle on the site was built by the Normans after 1081, to protect the newly conquered town of Cardiff and control the route along the Taff Gorge. Abandoned shortly afterwards, the castle's earth motte was reused by Gilbert de Clare as the basis for a new stone fortification, which he built between 1267 and 1277 to control his freshly annexed Welsh lands. This castle was likely destroyed in the native Welsh rebellion of 1314. In 1760, the castle ruins were acquired by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, as part of a marriage settlement that brought the family vast estates in South Wales.
John Crichton-Stuart, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, inherited the castle in 1848. One of Britain's wealthiest men, with interests in architecture and antiquarian studies, he employed the architect William Burges to reconstruct the castle, "as a country residence for occasional occupation in the summer", using the medieval remains as a basis for the design. Burges rebuilt the outside of the castle between 1875 and 1879, before turning to the interior; he died in 1881 and the work was finished by Burges's remaining team in 1891. Bute reintroduced commercial viticulture into Britain, planting a vineyard just below the castle, and wine production continued until the First World War. The Marquess made little use of his new retreat and in 1950 his grandson, the 5th Marquess of Bute, placed it into the care of the state. It is now controlled by the Welsh heritage agency Cadw.
Castell Coch's external features and the High Victorian interiors led the historian David McLees to describe it as "one of the greatest Victorian triumphs of architectural composition." The exterior, based on 19th-century studies by the antiquarian George Clark, is relatively authentic in style, although its three stone towers were adapted by Burges to present a dramatic silhouette, closer in design to mainland European castles such as Chillon than native British fortifications. The interiors were elaborately decorated, with specially designed furniture and fittings; the designs include extensive use of symbolism drawing on classical and legendary themes. Joseph Mordaunt Crook wrote that the castle represented "the learned dream world of a great patron and his favourite architect, recreating from a heap of rubble a fairy-tale castle which seems almost to have materialised from the margins of a medieval manuscript."

The surrounding beech woods contain rare plant species and unusual geological features and are protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Castell Coch

Account

by category

Login

Name

by region

Title

Name in English

Caerphilly Castle is one of the great medieval castles of western Europe. Several factors give it this pre-eminence - its immense size (1.2h), making it the largest in Britain after Windsor, its large-scale use of water for defence and the fact that it is the first truly concentric castle in Britain. Of the time of its building in the late 13th century, it was a revolutionary masterpiece of military planning

One of Henry III's most powerful and ambitious barons, Gilbert de Clare, lord of Glamorgan, built this castle. His purpose was to secure the area and prevent lowland south Wales from falling into the hands of the Welsh leader Llywelyn the Last, who controlled most of mid and north Wales. De Clare built other castles on the northern fringes of his territory for the same purpose, such as Castell Coch. He had seized the upland district of Senghenydd, in which Caerphilly lies, from the Welsh in 1266 to act as a buffer against Llywelyn's southward ambitions. Llywelyn realised the threat and tried but failed to prevent the castle from being built; it was begun on 11 April 1268, was attacked by Llywelyn in 1270, and was begun again in 1271. This time it was completed without hindrance. Its message was not lost on Llywelyn, who retreated northwards. Apart from the remodelling of the great hall and other domestic works in 1322-6 for Hugh le Despenser, no more alterations were carried out, making it a very pure example of late 13th-century military architecture.
Caerphilly is unusual in being a late castle built on a virgin site. This allowed a unity of conception rare in medieval castles. It is a double-skinned parallelogram surrounded by large-scale water defences. The concentric arrangement was more flexible than earlier plans. It gave rapid access to any part of the castle by mural passages and wall-walks, towers and gatehouses could be independently held, attackers could be well covered and there was no possibility of mounting siege engines against the inner walls. The castle’s cellular structure and strength is indicated by the presence of numerous portcullises.
The outer skin or ward is formed by a low battlemented curtain wall with large semi-circular projections in the corners and gatehouses in the middle of the east and west sides. Only a narrow strip separates this from the much stronger inner ward which has high curtain walls, circular corner towers and two large strong gatehouses corresponding with the outer ones. The great east gatehouse is the highest part of the castle and was its nucleus. As will be seen, it could be separately defended if necessary.
The south and north lakes around the castle formed an almost insuperable barrier to attackers. The dams themselves are a major achievement of medieval engineering. The southern, earliest one is a massive earth platform revetted in stone and strengthened on its lower side by eight great buttresses (below left). To the right of the entrance to the castle is the northern dam, a narrower platform with a high outer wall with three great towers (below right) which are now unfortunately suffering from subsidence on the marshy ground. At its end is a strong postern gate and drawbridge. Outside the dam is a moat fed by sluices in the southern dam.
The outer defences were completed by making a 1.2h artificial island to the west of the castle, known as the hornwork. A trench had already been dug in the early stages of construction outside the west side of the castle; now another was dug further west and the area between was raised, levelled and revetted in stone to form the hornwork. The north-west side has two semi-circular projections covering the drawbridge, the ruins of which can be seen between them.
The outer gatehouse on the east side (right) is both the present and the original entrance. Here the main characteristics of the castle as deterrent become apparent - its great strength, its severity, its lack of windows and lack of decoration. Inside the gatehouse is an exhibition about the castle, and stairs lead up to roof level, from which is a panoramic view. Crossed rather than plain arrowslits in this gatehouse and in other buildings on the dams show that they are slightly later than the main castle. To the left is the platform of the south dam, the wider northern end of which may be partly natural, but the southern end of which is entirely artificial. Half-way along are the ruins of a mill, and at the south end are two towers and a rectangular gatehouse which gave access to the medieval borough (below).
Next is the outer ward entered via a bridge leading to its east gatehouse with twin D-shaped towers, only the restored outer walls of which remain. Its opposite number on the west (right) is slightly better preserved. There, the stone piers supporting the drawbridge leading to the hornwork can be seen, as can chimneys and fireplaces on two floors, indicating comfortable living quarters. The false machicolation, poorer masonry and chimneys may indicate that the gatehouse was rebuilt at a later date. In the south-east corner is the base of a large rectangular building, possibly a granary. The south side is entirely blocked by a two-storey D-shaped kitchen tower, stores and servants’ quarters. Below is a water-gate to the lake.
The inner ward is the most impressive part of the castle. The corner towers demonstrate varying degrees of preservation. The north-west tower is complete, and an exhibition on Welsh castles is housed there. Little remains of the north-east tower and the south-east tower is partly ruined. It stands 15m high and leans at an alarming angle, 10 degrees out of true. The cause, whether subsidence or Civil War slighting, is unknown.
The imposing east gatehouse of the inner ward is the climax of any visit to the castle. It consists of twin D-shaped towers, a central passage with portcullises at both ends, and circular stair turrets on the inner corners. Like much of the inner ward it was ruinous by the 19th century, but was meticulously restored by the 4th marquis of Bute. The handsome and comfortable apartment on the second floor was probably that of the keeper, or constable of the castle.
On the south side of the inner ward are the great hall and state apartments. The large ground-floor hall, which was evidently a sumptuous building, was remodelled by Hugh le Despenser the Younger in 1322-6 and was restored by the 3rd marquis of Bute in the late 19th century. Originally the timber roof was lower, carried on the four carved corbels still in place in the south wall. Hugh le Despenser brought in the best craftsmen, who raised the roof and gave the four windows a decorated ogee shape, rich mouldings, and glass. The door was treated in the same way, and the whole building was faced with ashlar. The two doors at the east end led to a buttery and cellar, possibly with a small chapel over them. To the west were the state apartments, well-appointed rooms with fireplaces and a large traceried window on the first floor.
The castle’s active history was an extremely short one. By 1283 Edward I had removed the threat of Welsh independence and the need for Caerphilly had gone. Minor Welsh attacks in 1294-5 and 1316 failed to make any impact. The last action that Caerphilly saw was in the war between Edward II and his queen, Isabella. Intent on destroying the power of her husband and his favourite Hugh le Despenser, Isabella besieged the castle from December 1326 to March 1327. But by this time Edward had fled and Hugh had been hanged. Thereafter the castle declined and fell into ruin. In the late 16th century Thomas Lewis of The Van, just outside Caerphilly, was granted permission to use its stone to build his new house, thus accelerating its dilapidation. In the Civil War it was unusable and an earthwork redoubt was built instead to the north-west, the remains of which are still visible in the trees beyond the north lake. By the 18th century the lakes were dry and houses had been built against the foot of the south dam. That the castle rose again from its sorry state is due to the visionary clearance and restoration work undertaken by the Bute family and the imaginative reflooding of the lakes by the state in the 1950s.

Caerphilly Castle

St Fagans Castle is an Elizabethan mansion in St Fagans, Cardiff, Wales, dating from the late 16th century. The house and remaining medieval fortifications are Grade I listed. The grounds of St Fagans Castle now contain St Fagans National Museum of History.
A medieval castle dating from the 13th century previously existed on the site. By 1536 it lay in ruins. By 1563 the site had been sold to a Dr John Gibbon. A new house was built on the site either by Gibbon or by Nicholas Herbert, who bought the site from Gibbon in 1586. Part of the D-shaped medieval boundary fortifications remain, forming a wall around the current house.
Sir Edward Lewis of The Van, Caerphilly, bought the house in 1616 and the interior dates partly from then and partly from after 1850, when it became the summer residence of the Windsor-Clive family. The property was part of the estate of the Earls of Plymouth and, in 1833, was inherited by Lady Harriet Clive who proceeded to restore the building. The sequence of terraces in the gardens was created for the Windsor-Clives in 1865–6 and extended in the early 20th century. The house became a convalescent hospital for soldiers during World War I, with the banqueting hall containing a ward of 40 beds.
In 1947 the Windsor-Clives gave the house and grounds to the Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales and the grounds subsequently became the site of the Welsh Folk Museum, now St Fagans National Museum of History.
St Fagans Castle became a Grade I listed building in 1977. The lead water cistern in the courtyard of the castle is Grade II* listed, while a number of features in the gardens are listed as Grade II.

St Fagans Castle

Cardiff Castle is one of Wales’ leading heritage attractions and a site of international significance. Located within beautiful parklands at the heart of the capital, Cardiff Castle’s walls and fairytale towers conceal 2,000 years of history. 
Roman Fort
The Roman fort at Cardiff was probably established at the end of the 50s AD, on a strategic site that afforded easy access to the sea. Archaeological excavations indicate that this was the first of four forts, each a different size, that occupied the present site. Remains of the Roman wall can be seen today. 
Norman Keep
After the Norman conquest, the Castle’s keep was built, re-using the site of the Roman fort. The first keep on the motte, erected by Robert Fitzhamon, Norman Lord of Gloucester, was probably built of wood. Further medieval fortifications and dwellings followed over the years. 
Bute Family
The Castle passed through the hands of many noble families until in 1766, it passed by marriage to the Bute family. The 2nd Marquess of Bute was responsible for turning Cardiff into the world’s greatest coal exporting port. The Castle and Bute fortune passed to his son John, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, who by the 1860s was reputed to be the richest man in the world. 
William Burges
From 1866 the 3rd Marquess employed the genius architect William Burges to transform the Castle lodgings. Within gothic towers he created lavish and opulent interiors, rich with murals, stained glass, marble, gilding and elaborate wood carvings. Each room has its own special theme, including Mediterranean gardens and Italian and Arabian decoration. The 3rd Marquess died when he was only 53 in 1900.
Despite huge death duties on the estate, the 4th Marquess completed many of his father’s restoration projects including the reconstruction of the Roman wall. The Bute family continued to stay at the Castle throughout the 1920s and 1930s, although they had sold off many of their business interests in south Wales. 
A gift to the city of Cardiff
Following the death of the 4th Marquess of Bute, the family decided to give the Castle and much of its parkland to the city of Cardiff. For 25 years, the Castle was home to the National College of Music and Drama and since 1974 has become one of Wales’ most popular visitor attractions.
‘The Essential Cardiff Castle’ by Castle Curator Matthew Williams is the definitive guidebook to the fascinating history of this site and is available from the Castle Gift Shop.
Cardiff Castle is one of Wales’ leading heritage attractions and a site of international significance. Located at the heart of the capital, within beautiful parklands, the Castle’s walls and fairytale towers conceal 2,000 years of history.

Cardiff Castle

Hensol Castle dates back to at least 1419. From its early days to the present, a succession of different owners have altered, improved and added their own individual tastes and designs.
The Hensol estate was first found to be owned by the Jenkins family (1419-1721). Judge David Jenkins was a man of great force and character and was known as a staunch Royalist. He took an active part against the Parliamentarians during the Civil War where he condemned several to death for activities deemed treasonable. Consequently he was captured and sent to the Tower of London and in 1648 he was brought before the House of Commons but refused to kneel at the bar and as a result fined £1,000.
In 1721 the estate was passed onto Charles Talbot through his marriage with the Jenkins heiress, Cecil Jenkins. In 1733 he was made Lord Chancellor and raised to the peerage with the title of Baron Talbot of Hensol. His son, William Talbot was thought to have great affection for Hensol and was responsible for laying out and starting the landscaping of the grounds and altering the external appearance of the house. It was the Talbot family that castellated the mansion and so Hensol Castle was born.
In 1789 Samuel Richardson bought the estate. Richardson was a wealthy banker, who later became the Sheriff of Glamorgan. He was known to have been a pioneer in agriculture and farming and was therefore thought to have made many improvements to the Hensol estate, including land drainage.
1815 saw Benjamin Hall take ownership of Hensol Castle. Benjamin Hall was highly educated and was elected MP. His son, another Benjamin Hall, was also an MP. This Benjamin Hall became the Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Board of Works and he oversaw the later stages of the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament, including the installation of “Big Ben”, which is allegedly named after him as he was said to be a ‘towering figure’.
In 1824 the estate was passed onto the Crawshay family. William Crawshay was known as the “Iron King” and was also High Sheriff of Glamorgan. He improved the walled garden and extended the deer park as well as improvements to the lake and grounds. Crawshay later built Cyfarthfa Castle, another castellated mansion in Merthyr Tydfil.
In 1838 Rowland Fothergill bought the estate. Fothergill introduced a large courtyard, a clock tower and a flag tower during his ownership. He also drained the lake to add a mock castle “Summer House”; only accessible by rowing boat. Fothergill also employed T.H. Wyatt and David Brandon to help remodel Hensol Castle. They did so by improving the battlements, changing the window design and extending the North wing outwards to accommodate for the elaborate service and stable courts that the Victorians deemed essential.
In 1877 Hensol was passed down to Fothergill’s niece Lady Isabella Elizabeth Price Fothergill who married Sir Rose Lambart Price. Two of their three sons died in action, and the estate was then passed onto the third son who then put it up for sale.
In 1926 the Glamorgan County Council bought the estate and used it as a County asylum. This was a hospital for men and women with learning disabilities. In the late 20th Century there was more movement towards community care for people with learning disabilities, so the number of patients progressively decreased.
The hospital closed and in 2004 the castle and grounds were bought by local businessman, Gerald Leeke and in 2015 the castle officially opened as a wedding and conference centre.

Hensol Castle

Ruperra Castle or Rhiwperra Castle is a Grade II* Listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument, situated in Lower Machen in the county borough of Caerphilly, Wales. It was built in 1626, now it is in a ruined condition and up for sale.
Built in 1626 by Sir Thomas Morgan, Steward to the Earl of Pembroke, it was one of the first of the 'mock' castles to be built in Wales. King Charles I spent two nights at Ruperra Castle in 1645 shortly after the Battle of Naseby. Resultantly the royal coat of arms was added to the decoration on the South Porch, and the present public footpath from Rudry to the Castle is still known as "King's Drive."
It was bought as his home by wealthy John Morgan "the merchant" for 12,400 pounds. He was unmarried and it was consolidated on his death in 1715 into the Tredegar estates of the Morgan family.
It was destroyed by fire in 1785, and rebuilt, resultantly became home, especially in the 19th century, to the heir of the estate. Godfrey Charles Morgan, 2nd Baron, 1st Viscount Tredegar, who was a captain in the 17th Lancers during the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaklava in the Crimean War, was born at Ruperra. It was during the early Victorian age that he undertook a lot of development, adding three new lodges as well as in 1826 a now listed iron bridge, allowing a carriage way through Coed Craig Ruperra and across the Rhymney River to Lower Machen Church where the family and their servants attended Sunday services.
After the death of army officer turned politician Colonel Frederick Courtenay Morgan in 1909, his son Courtenay Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar, embarked on a programme of refurbishment. Minor adjustments were made to the main house, but his major improvement was the building of a new stable block to replace the one destroyed by fire in 1895, a new reservoir and pump house in the deer park, and a new power house fitted with duplicate steam-driven generators, dynamos and boilers. The 1840s brew house, laundry and dairy range were converted to accommodate the estates staff.
Courtenay's son, Evan Morgan, 4th Baron, 2nd Viscount Tredegar, poet and noted eccentric with links to Aldous Huxley, Lord Alfred Douglas, Augustus John, Nancy Cunard and H. G. Wells, then owned Ruperra. He grew up there and, apparently, refused to sell it to William Randolph Hearst, whose lover, the actress Marion Davies, wanted a home in South Wales. Later, after Davis saw photographs of St Donat's Castle, Vale of Glamorgan in Country Life magazine, that property was bought and revitalised by Hearst in 1925 as a gift to Davis.
But by 1935, the Morgan fortune was in decline. Despite having invested heavily in the property, the Morgan seat and main home remained Tredegar House, with Ruperra used as a weekend hunting lodge. The entire 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) estate was put up for sale, with the contents either moved to Tredegar House or sold in three-day auction. Un-staffed and effectively abandoned, at the start of World War II, like many other large estate houses, it was taken over by the British Army, under whose control in 1941 it was destroyed by another fire. Post-war, the entire estate was sold onwards as farm land, with the castle left as a decaying ruin, the status in which it remains today.
Mr Ashraf Barakat bought the castle in 1998, and tried to revive the sport of polo in Wales. After failing in a planning permission application to construct nine residential flats within the building, due to the discovery of roosting of both Greater and Lesser horseshoe bats, he later applied to demolish it to build housing, but again planning permission was refused. In September 2010, Barakat put the castle up for sale, at a price of £1.5M for 14 acres (with an optional further 16 acres), which was sold in about July 2014.

Ruperra Castle

Old Beaupre Castle is a ruined medieval fortified manor house located in the community of Llanfair, outside Cowbridge in Wales. It is known in historic documents under the names Beawpire, Bewerpere, Bewpyr and Y Bewpur. It is a Grade I listed building and is presently under the care of Cadw. It can be visited free of charge all year round by members of the public.
Although called Old Beaupre Castle the structure is seen as a fortified manor house. The original house was an L-shaped building, now located within the inner courtyard, built circa 1300 and from this period until the 18th century it was owned by the Basset family. During the 16th century intensive remodelling was undertaken, started by Sir Rice Mansel, continued by William Basset and completed by William's son, Richard. This additional work added the impressive outer gatehouse, completed in 1586 and a three-storeyed Renaissance porch, completed 1600, along with the buildings around the middle court. The buildings on the west side of the middle court, now roofless, provided luxurious living accommodation with large windows, handsome fireplaces, a fine stone stairway, and numerous privies connected to a drain along which water still flows.
After the 16th century alterations little work was carried out on Beaupre, and after the English Civil War the Basset family fortunes went into decline. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Basset inheritance eventually passed to the Jones family. The Jones family decided not to settle in Beaupre Castle and chose to use the smaller and more convenient mansion of New Beaupre. Beaupre was sold in 1709, and by that time it was in a state of disrepair with only part of it still habitable. Nevertheless, there is some evidence that it continued to be at least partly occupied as various fireplaces and windows were blocked up, presumably to reduce the taxes payable. The southeastern block continues to be occupied up to the present time as a farmhouse and has a separate listing on the historic buildings register.
The site
This mansion dates from the sixteenth or seventeenth century but is built on remnants of a building dating from about 1300. It occupies a site about 100 metres (330 ft) long and 25 to 56 metres (82 to 184 ft) wide, orientated in a north/south direction. The building is arranged around three courts, the fine gatehouse being on the south side connecting the outer to the middle court. The oldest part of the building is the south block where the original gatehouse can be seen to the left of the later one; this older entrance has a Tudor window inserted into the blocked arch.
Beaupre Castle has few outwardly looking windows and appears like a series of fortified barns. The main entrance is via the gatehouse reached via a low walled outer courtyard. The gatehouse is a three storey structure surrounded by a curtain wall. The inner porch stands out from the rest of the courtyard with smooth ashlar stonework in comparison to the rough local stonework surrounding it. The porch, designed by Richard Twrch, consists of varying architectural styles including a Tudor arch, strapwork decoration and three tiers of flanked columns. The columns rise in ascending order from Doric to Ionic to Corinthian and the second tier bears the Basset family heraldic set on panels. Through the entrance porch is the fourteenth century great hall, now without a roof. The windows were probably enlarged in the sixteenth century but the fine, heraldic fireplace dates back to the fourteenth century.[1]

The range on the east side of the middle court has no roof and is four storeys high. Its southern elevation has a doorway at ground level on either end, three sets of four-light windows towards the right end and six pairs of two-light windows at the left end. The range on the west side of the middle court is three storeys high, has no floor or roof and dates from about 1540. Its northern elevation has three sets of four-light mullioned windows which are centrally placed.
Visitor information
Old Beaupre Castle is a scheduled monument, a Grade I listed building, listed because it is a fine example of a medieval manor house, modified during the Tudor period, and its carved Renaissance porch is particularly impressive. Old Beaupre Castle is under the care of Cadw. The property is open all year round free of charge. A small car park is available 250 metres away and visitors approach the property across pastureland, with stiles and a kissing gate.

Old Beaupre Castle

St Quintins Castle is a castle located in the village of Llanblethian, Cowbridge, Wales. It is a scheduled monument and a Grade II listed building and is under the care of Cadw. The site was first occupied with a defensive structure in about 1102 and the gatehouse and further building work took place around 1312. It was later used as a prison and was reported as being in a ruinous state by 1741.
Around 1102 Robert Fitzhamon, the first Norman Lord of Glamorgan bequeathed the lands of Llanblethian as a lordship to Herbert de St Quentin who is thought to have built the first fortification at the site of the castle. This initial construct was believed to have been a simple ringwork defence with timber walls, a bank and ditch. A rectangular stone keep was built in the late 12th century, whose remains can now be found within the later gatehouse. This keep may have replaced a similar wooden structure.
14th century reinforcements
The lordship remained with the St Quentin family until 1233 when the land was seized by Richard Siward, but he then lost it to Earl Richard de Clare in 1245. Richard de Clare seized large areas of this part of Glamorganshire, from Cowbridge to Llantrisant, but it was his grandson, Earl Gilbert de Clare, who began to build the stone structure of St Quintins Castle which stands today. This was thought to have been roughly after 1307, but Gilbert de Clare was killed in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 before the castle was completed. Modern historians believe that the lack of inner courtyard buildings and the weakness of the curtain wall points to the hypothesis that the castle was never fully completed.
Defensive layout
The castle itself is a rectangular stone walled enclosure, roughly 64 metres East to West. The walls are roughly 120 centimetres in thickness. It is set on a spur above steep slopes on all sides apart from the East side. The weak East side of the fortification is protected by a twin-tower gatehouse and a further two towers East entrance facade. The best defensive side is the southern side which falls away sharply to the River Thaw. It was reported as being ruinous by 1741.
The castle today
The base of a semi-octagonal tower can be seen at the southeast corner of the castle and parts of a tower at the southwest corner. The ivy-clad gatehouse is between these and is a substantial structure where you can see the slits for the two portcullises and the fittings for the sets of strong doors. The remains of the keep are largely rubble and little remains of the bailey walls on the east, north and south sides.

St Quintins Castle

Fonmon is one of few mediaeval castles still lived in as a home. Since it was built by the St. John family c1200, it has only changed hands once – quite an impressive feat!  Castle open to the Public for guided tours April to September on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.  Opening times for individuals, families and groups of less than twelve on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between midday and 5pm, no need to book.  Public guided tours at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm priced at £6.  Access to garden and grounds is free, last entrance to garden at 4pm.  Assistance dogs only allowed Visitors are welcomed by an experienced guide and the 45 minute tour walks through the fascinating history of the Castle, its families, architecture and interiors. The Fonmon gardens are an attraction in their own right for enthusiasts and amateurs alike and visitors are free to wander and explore. Group Tours For pre-booked groups, we can provide refreshments ranging from morning coffee and afternoon tea to lunches and dinners, all enjoyed in the Castles elegant Georgian interiors Venue Hire This unique heritage property is available as an exclusive wedding and party venue, corporate and team building location, visitor attraction and host for product launches and filming.

Fonmon Castle

The demands of modern transport have almost squeezed this castle out of existence: most lies under roads, and only the east side survives, sandwiched between a road and a railway bridge. However, what little remains is not without interest, and the best place from which to get an impression of its original grandeur is half-way across the adjacent bridge, from where its position right on the bank of the river Usk can best be appreciated. The projecting central tower with its water-gate or dock beneath is the dominant feature. Flanking it are two octagonal towers with prominent spur buttresses. These mark the north and south end of the castle, from which a curtain wall ran westwards enclosing a roughly rectangular area. Outside the curtain wall was a deep moat which filled with sea water at high tide.
The castle was built between 1327 and 1386 by Hugh d'Audele or his son-in-law Ralph, earl of Stafford. It replaced an earlier motte and bailey castle on Stow Hill, near the cathedral. Newport was the headquarters of the Norman lordship of Wentloog or Gwynlliog, which had been within the lordship of Glamorgan until 1314. The new stone castle reflected Wentloog's enhanced status as a separate lordship. The castle was of the usual medieval type with a curtain was enclosing a courtyard or ward. Towers punctuated its sides and there would have been at least one entrance gatehouse.
The next building phase was in the second quarter of the 15th century when the castle was strengthened and embellished for Humphrey Stafford, who became the first duke of Buckingham. The most important of these alterations were the raising of the north curtain wall and the heightening and modernizing of the south tower. After 1521, when the 3rd duke of Buckingham was beheaded, the castle was neglected, and by the 18th century was mostly ruinous. What remains of the castle has been restored in places, but much of the original stonework of mottled pink Old Red sandstone and white Dundry stone survives.
In the middle of the remaining castle is the great central tower (shown at right) which originally extended further westwards. From the west it is possible to make out all its principle features - the water-gate beneath, which was closed by a portcullis, the room above with its fine ribbed vaulting, a spiral staircase housed in a much restored octagonal turret in the north-west corner, and the stub of an upper storey. The main room probably would have been the lord's audience chamber.
To the south of the central tower was a long narrow room dating from the 15th century rebuilding. The lord's apartments were in this tower, which was originally two storeys high but was heightened to three by Humphrey Stafford. The quality of the decorated windows, the fireplaces and the carved corbels on the upper floor indicate sophistication and comfort.
Newport castle had an active life of only about 200 years, and during very little of this time was it actually occupied by its lord. For a brief time at the beginning of the 16th century Jasper Tudor, Henry VIII's uncle, lived here. It played no significant part in national politics, and its main function was the day-to-day administration of the lordship of Wentloog.

Newport Castle

Coity Castle in Glamorgan, Wales, is a Norman castle built by Sir Payn "the Demon" de Turberville (fl. 1126), one of the legendary Twelve Knights of Glamorgan supposed to have conquered Glamorgan under the leadership of Robert FitzHamon (d. 1107), Lord of Gloucester. Now in ruins, it stands in the community of Coity Higher near the town of Bridgend, in the County Borough of Bridgend. Very close to the castle is the battlemented parish church of St Mary the Virgin, dating from the 14th century.
It is a Grade I listed building.
The castle began as a late 11th-century ringwork. A rectangular stone keep and the main curtain wall were added by the Normans in the 12th century, under the de Turberville family. The three-storey keep was primarily a defensive structure.
Extensive reworking took place in the 14th century, when a domestic range was attached to the keep by the middle gatehouse. New stone vaults replaced the earlier timber floors. The central octagonal pier for the vaults is still prominent among the castle ruins. An adjoining chapel wing with a tall east window was added to the first floor at the eastern end of the domestic range in the 15th century.
Thomas de la Bere died as a minor on 28 October 1414, following which the lordship reverted to Sarah de Turberville, the youngest sister of Richard de Turberville, who had apparently produced male progeny from her marriage to William Gamage. There was in the few years following Sir Lawrence Berkerolles's death much general reshuffling of property interests in Glamorgan, for example with the Stradling family. Sarah's marriage to Sir William Gamage of Roggiett, Gwent, brought the lordship into the Gamage family, where it remained until 1584. The Gamage succession was not, however, easily achieved for in September 1412, that is to say whilst the supposed true heir the minor Thomas de la Bere was still alive, William Gamage assisted by Sir Gilbert Denys (d. 1422) of Siston, Gloucestershire, and formerly of Waterton-by-Ewenny, in Coity lordship, besieged Coity for a month, trying to oust Lady Joan Verney, wife of Sir Richard Verney and daughter of Margaret de Turberville, from the Castle. Joan, it seems, had taken up residence to assert her own claim to Coity in the confusion following Berkerolles's death. As she was a female, a widow, and without a son, clearly her claim was deemed tenuous or rather completely spurious.
The king had, therefore, given a commission to his local tenants-in-chief to raise the siege and gave another commission a month later to John Grendour for the same purpose. Denys and Gamage ended up in the Tower of London for having taken the law into their own hands, from 19 November 1412 until 3 June 1413, being released after the death of Henry IV. Their action, however, proved successful in enforcing the Gamage claim to Coity. Denys's eldest daughter Joan was the wife of a certain Thomas Gamage, possibly brother of William. Another of Denys's daughters, Matilda, by his 2nd. wife, married another Thomas Gamage, son or grandson of William and Sarah, and thereby became Lady of Coity on her husband's succession, producing a son and heir John Gamage.
During the 16th century, Coity Castle, by then owned by the Gamage family, underwent a complete remodelling of the living quarters, including the addition of a storey, new windows, and two chimney stacks. The principal chambers lay on the upper floors. The range of domestic apartments comprised a central first-floor hall set above a vaulted undercroft, from which it was reached by a grand spiral stair. To the west were ground-floor service rooms, probably including a kitchen, with ovens. The base of a ruined large malting kiln remains. On the far side of the range, a tower projecting from the curtain wall contained latrines. The second floor housed private apartments.
The Gamage family held Coity until the death of John Gamage in 1584. The castle was abandoned around the 17th century.[citation needed] The castle was sold in the 18th century to the Edwins of Llanharry. Through the Edwins, the Coity lordship passed to the Earls of Dunraven.
The castle ruins are now in the care of Cadw.