Pennard Castle

Visit Date: July 2021

This week I took advantage of the great weather and went to the Gower coast in South Wales and visited the ruins of Pennard Castle.

Pennard Castle is a ruined castle on the Gower Peninsula near the village of Pennard in South Wales. Like many Norman castles built in the early 12th century, it started as an oval shaped timber ringwork and the walls were rebuilt in stone in the late 13th or early 14th century.

The only entrance was through the gatehouse on the east side, which consisted of an archway.

A small settlement grew up around the castle, and to its east, a solitary section of wall is all that is left of St. Mary's church which was the last element of the settlement to be abandoned in 1532. The Castle, village and church were all subsequently overwhelmed by sand.

The castle was listed in a survey in 1650 where it was described as being desolate, ruinous and surrounded by sand.

By the 1920's Penard Golf Club had acquired the site and a beautiful golf course had been developed with the castle ruins at the beachside of the course.

In 1923 funds were being raised to help preserve what was left of the castle but the cost was too high and only some remedial work being "patched" with concrete was carried out.

After the disaster of the remaining southern wall collapsing at the beginning of 1960 a public appeal launched by local newspapers and urgent masonry repairs were then carried out in 1963, paid for by a combination of the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works, the Gower Society, the golf club and the public appeal funds.

Thankfully now The ruins are protected under UK law as a grade II* listed building and a scheduled ancient monument.

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Visit Information:-
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51.57650638581841, -4.102301944976939
Google Search reference: Penard Castle
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Additional information
Visiting is easy. Take the M4 motorway west Junc 42, Pass thought Swansea and take the Mumbles road . A 483 - A4067 and then B4436.
There is a national trust car park quite close (51.56692601910292, -4.087807245914044) and the charge is reasonable. There is also toilets and a café and restaurant near the car park. The castle can then be reached either by walking the road back to the golf course which is passed getting to the car park and crossing the course. Or if you are fitter from the beach which is down from the car park and across Pobbles bay to Three Cliffs Bay and then up to the castle.