Wales · Partial ruin
Oxwich Castle
Oxwich Castle (Castell Oxwich) is a 16th-century Tudor fortified manor house in courtyard form on a wooded headland overlooking Oxwich Bay on the Gower Peninsula, Wales. Built and enlarged by the Mansel family, the surviving ranges and towers surround a central courtyard and are now in the care of Cadw as a Grade I listed site.
Its prime
1580
Today
Partial ruin
As it stood in 1580
The shape it held in its prime.
A courtyard-plan Tudor manor of rough grey-brown local stone with an outer Gateway leading into an open grassy courtyard. The east range contained a large Hall and the south range a kitchen; at their corner stands a tall, multi-storey south-east tower with a fractured, irregular roofline. A large rounded drum or buttressed tower sits in the foreground, and a squat square tower is visible to the north-west; window openings are small rectangular slots set in thick rubble walls. The site sits on a wooded headland above Oxwich Bay.
Its story
The story of Oxwich Castle.
A charter of 1306 granted in Swansea refers to tenants of 'the ancient knight's fees' at Oxwich, hinting at fortifications on the headland before the present castle. Oxwich was then owned by the de Penres family, in possession since the 1230s, and the original castle was the residence of the Norman de la Mare family during the 13th and 14th centuries.
The castle standing today is a castle in name only — a grand Tudor fortified manor house built in courtyard style by Sir Rice Mansel (died 1559), who also owned Old Beaupre Castle, over the ruins of the earlier stronghold. Its gateway is surmounted by a plaque bearing the arms of the Mansel family and of the Penrice and Scurlage families to which Sir Rhys was related.
By 1632 the castle was already being leased out by the Mansel family. The surviving ranges and towers around the central courtyard, on their wooded headland overlooking Oxwich Bay on the Gower Peninsula, are now in the care of Cadw as a Grade I listed site.
Step inside
9 places to explore in 1580.
The record describes 9 distinct spots at Oxwich Castle — including 2 interiors: great hall (east range) interior, south range — kitchen and service rooms. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more photos, more angles and more rooms of the immersive experience.
Create History
Recreate Oxwich Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1580 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate Castle to Explore →Whose castle
Clans who held Oxwich Castle.
The families that held Oxwich Castle for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
de Penres
The de Penres family held Oxwich from the 1230s.
de la Mare
The Norman de la Mare family were resident at the original castle in the 13th and 14th centuries.
Mansel
Sir Rice Mansel (d. 1559) built the Tudor manor house; the Mansels held it, leasing it out by 1632.
