Wales · Partial ruin
Oxwich Castle
Castell Oxwich
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
What Oxwich Castle looked like 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.
The de Penres Knight's Fees, 1230s–1459
Oxwich was in the hands of the de Penres family from the 1230s, and a charter granted at Swansea in 1306 refers to tenants of "the ancient knight's fees" there, meaning tenants who held their land by military service. The phrase indicates that there may have been fortification on the headland before the present buildings were raised. The original castle was the residence of the Norman de la Mare family through the 13th and 14th centuries.
Of that earlier work nothing remains but a ruined tower to the north-east of the castle, which may predate the Tudor building and may be the castrum de Oxenwych named in a document of 1459.
Sir Rice Mansel's Courtyard House, 1520–1559
What stands on the headland today is a castle in name only: a grand Tudor fortified manor house laid out in courtyard style. Sir Rice Mansel, who died in 1559 and who also held Old Beaupre Castle, built it over the ruins of the older stronghold. The gateway went up between 1520 and 1538, and the south range, which contained the kitchen, in the same years.
The gateway is surmounted by a plaque bearing the arms of the Mansel family together with those of the Penrice and Scurlage families, to which the builder was related.
Sir Edward Mansel and the Great House, 1559–1595
His son Sir Edward Mansel, who died in 1595, succeeded to the property and between 1560 and 1580 made something far grander of it, a house known as the Great House, capable of lodging a large number of guests and retainers. It was a leading example in Wales of the Elizabethan prodigy house.
The hall was built on the east of the courtyard, facing the gateway, between 1559 and 1580, and at the corner where hall and south range met rose a six-storey south-east tower. East range and tower were connected, and together they provided extensive accommodation. It is possible that building this range led to the bankruptcy of its builder.
Leased Out, Collapsed, Farmed, 1632–1949
By 1632 the castle was already being leased out by the Mansels. Parts of the building collapsed in the eighteenth century, after which parts of the south range were rebuilt, and it went on serving as a farmhouse into the 20th century.
In 1949 the castle was threatened with demolition. It was saved instead, and given to the State.
State Care and the Oxwich Brooch, 1952–2024
The castle was listed Grade I on 9 June 1952, and it is also a scheduled monument and a National Monument of Wales. It was excavated between 1974 and 1976, and it remains in the care of Cadw, which since 2024 has used the Welsh name Castell Oxwich in English as well, part of an effort to standardise the names in both languages.
During maintenance works at the castle in 1968, Cyril Grove found a gold brooch, a rare fine example of medieval British jewellery. Two inches in diameter, it takes the form of a gold ring with mounts, of the period 1320–1340, set with three rubies and three cameos; the cameos are believed to have been added later, and the brooch may originally have contained sapphires. It may once have been part of the treasure of Edward II, or an heirloom of the Mansel family. It is now on display at National Museum Cardiff.
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 explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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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.
