Wales · Partial ruin
Morgraig Castle
Morgraig Castle is a 13th-century ruined castle sited on the Craig Llanishen escarpment near the border of Caerphilly and Cardiff, Wales. It was built between 1243 and 1267 but appears never to have been completed or occupied; the site is a scheduled monument and a Grade II listed building.
Its prime
1260
Today
Partial ruin
As it stood in 1260
What Morgraig Castle looked like in its prime.
Rectangular 13th-century castle sited on a grassy escarpment, its low curtain wall and tower bases built of pale buff–grey Sutton stone in coursed ashlar and rubble. The silhouette is defined by short, squared tower stumps set into the curtain, with traces of taller walling and crenellated battlements recorded on the wall tops. A stone newel for a spiral stair rises from first-floor level inside one tower; carved doorway and window stones are visible but no intact roofs or internal domestic buildings are present.
Its story
The story of Morgraig Castle.
Morgraig Castle was built in the 13th century — between 1243 and 1267 — on the Craig Llanishen escarpment overlooking Cardiff, near the southern border of the county borough of Caerphilly. It appears never to have been completed or occupied, and who built it is still debated: either Gilbert de Clare or the Welsh Lord of Senghennydd.
One argument holds the builder must have been English, resting on the Sutton stone used in its construction — quarried near Ogmore-by-Sea, where the de Clares' Ogmore Castle stood guard. Against this, a Gelligaer Historical Society study notes that relations between the Lord of Senghennydd and the de Clares were generally friendly until the Second Barons' War of 1264–67, and after Llywelyn ap Gruffudd destroyed the de Clare castle at Llangynwyd in 1257, the Lord of Senghennydd could have obtained the stone himself.
The alliance did not last: in 1266, after the Lord of Senghennydd and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd aligned with Simon de Montfort, Gilbert de Clare arrested the Lord of Senghennydd. The unfinished castle was excavated from the summer of 1903 under Ward, financed by Lord Windsor, and is today a scheduled monument and a Grade II listed building.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1260.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Morgraig Castle — including 4 interiors: open interior courtyard, tower stump showing newel post, keep foundation footprint and more. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Create History
Recreate Morgraig Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1260 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Nearby
