Historic Places in Swansea

Thou shalt not cross It’s easy to see why Loughor was built here. The ruins are those of a castle that commanded what was once a low-tide fording point across the Loughor Estuary. It wasn’t just the Normans who appreciated its strategic value. One thousand years earlier the Romans constructed the fort of Leucarum on this site. A 12th-century earthworks castle, burnt by the Welsh in 1151, was replaced in the next century with a stone fortress, a single tower of which survives along with the foundations of curtain walls.

Newport Castle was a stronghold of the Marcher Lordship of Cemais in the late 12th century but destroyed by the Welsh on two occassions within the next 57 years, before being rebuilt in stone. In its later life the gatehouse is rebuilt as a mansion by the Victorians and is still occupied today. The castle is private but can be seen from Penffaid, the lane that runs below the castle grounds from castle street.

Oystermouth Castle overlooks Swansea Bay from a hilltop above Mumbles village, a substantial and well-preserved castle that was the principal stronghold of the Gower Peninsula and the seat of the de Breos lords of Gower throughout the medieval period. The castle dates from the twelfth century and was developed over several phases into a comfortable residential castle with a great hall, chapel and domestic accommodation of considerable sophistication alongside its defensive capabilities. The castle is in the care of the City and County of Swansea and has been restored and opened to visitors with guided tours and an exhibition interpreting the castle's history. The hilltop position provides exceptional views over Swansea Bay and the Mumbles headland. The village of Mumbles below the castle is one of the most attractive and lively communities on the Gower coast, providing cafes, restaurants and the Victorian pier within easy walking distance.

Pennard Castle is a dramatic ruined fourteenth-century castle on the Gower Peninsula in Swansea, its walls and towers partially buried in the sand dunes that overwhelmed the associated medieval settlement of Pennard in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The combination of castle ruins, encroaching dunes and the steep valley of Pennard Pill below creates one of the most hauntingly atmospheric medieval sites in Wales, the sand burial giving the place an almost archaeological quality of suspended time. Local legend attributes the abandonment of the castle and village to a curse cast on the lord of Pennard by the fairy folk, a story that reflects the mysterious quality of this half-buried medieval landscape. The castle is freely accessible on foot from the car park at Southgate, and the walk to the castle through the limestone grassland of the Gower also passes the beautiful Three Cliffs Bay, one of the finest beach views in Wales.

Penrice Castle on the Gower Peninsula in Swansea is a ruined twelfth-century Norman castle that was the earliest stone castle on Gower, founded by Henry de Beaumont following the Norman seizure of the peninsula around 1106. The castle stands in the grounds of the adjacent eighteenth-century Penrice House, both within a landscaped parkland of considerable beauty that descends to the south coast of Gower. The ruins include a round keep, gatehouse and curtain wall in a setting of exceptional natural quality, with the views toward Oxwich Bay and the Bristol Channel visible through the trees of the parkland. The Gower Peninsula as Britain's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty combines medieval and prehistoric heritage with outstanding coastal scenery, and Penrice Castle contributes to the layered historical character of the southern Gower landscape.

During the Middle Ages there were few landowners in Wales wealthier than the Bishop's of St Davids. As well as being princes of the church, they were Marcher Lords in their own right, owing allegiance only to the king. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that at their cathedral city these powerful bishops created a group of medieval buildings unsurpassed anywhere west of Offa's Dyke. St Davids was the largest and most important medieval diocese in Wales. The cathedral housed the relics of the sixth-century saint, David, patron saint of Wales, and attracted substantial numbers of pilgrims, including William the Conqueror. Even in ruin, the palace is truly magnificent, matching most castles in scale and surpassing in terms of splendour.