Margam Castle

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries from 1536, the Margam estate was bought by Sir Rice (Rhys) Mansel, whose descendants built a large Tudor mansion in the park. That house was pulled down in the 18th century when the family returned to one of their earlier ancestral homes, Penrice Castle; Thomas Mansel Talbot (1747–1813) commissioned Anthony Keck to build a new mansion beside the castle ruins there, and also employed him at Margam, which Talbot turned into a pleasure garden complete with an enormous orangery.

Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot succeeded his father in 1813, aged ten. Enriched by the development of Port Talbot in the early 19th century, and returning from a Grand Tour of Europe, he re-established Margam as his main seat from 1830. The new house was designed by Thomas Hopper, with Edward Haycock Snr as supervisory architect, who also designed parts of the interior and exterior, the stables, terraces and lodges. Built between 1830 and 1835 at a cost of £50,000, it borrowed deliberately from Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, the Talbots' ancestral home, and from Melbury House in Dorset, the home of his mother's family, the Fox-Strangways. His cousin William Henry Fox Talbot, who lived at Lacock, was a frequent visitor, and the castle appeared in some of his early photographic experiments; the earliest known Welsh photograph is a daguerreotype of Margam Castle taken on 9 March 1841 by the Reverend Calvert Richard Jones.

The Talbot family used the castle until 1941, when it was sold. Its buyer, David Evans-Bevan, found it too large to live in and could find no public organisation interested in taking it on, and the house fell into disrepair. It belonged to the local authority for many years without being open to the public, and in 1977 a fire caused substantial damage — only then did restoration begin in earnest. In December 1997, after the devolution referendum, Neath Port Talbot Council proposed the castle as a site for the new Welsh Parliament building, a bid that was rejected at the shortlist stage. The castle, Grade I listed, remains in the council's care within Margam Country Park, itself listed Grade I on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.

Margam Castle stands within Margam Country Park, the former estate to the house, and is in the care of Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council. The park and the castle's exterior reward an unhurried walk: the asymmetrical elevations repay study from several angles, and the terraced garden steps, terrace walls and screen, and the service courtyard are all listed in their own right. Look north from the castle towards Mynydd-y-Castell, the Iron Age hill fort, to get a sense of how long people have chosen to live here.

Organised public ghost hunts are held at the venue, and for many visitors these are the way to see the interior after dark — book directly with the organisers, and go in the spirit of curiosity rather than expectation. Whatever you make of the stories, it is a chance to spend time in a Grade I listed house that Newman called unparalleled in Wales.