Penllyn Castle

About

Penllyn Castle is a Norman-style country house, dating mainly from the Victorian period, located in Cowbridge, 4 miles (6.4 km) south-east of Bridgend, South Wales. Built by Robert Fitzhamon in 1135, the sheriff Earl of Gloucester, it shares an oblong tower like contemporary Ogmore Castle. The high-location was chosen as it gave clear-view over both the River Thaw and Ewenny River valleys.

Reportedly attacked by Owain Glyndŵr, today the two surviving main walls of the original castle stand on the edge of a low cliff above the River Thaw. They include near the base six courses of "herringbone" masonry, a feature of early Norman construction. These add to the academic theory that the castle was one of the first Norman structures built during Fitzhamon's occupation of Glamorgan.

In Tudor times, the Turbeville family built a manor house in the residual grounds, for which the former castle keep forms one corner. In the 1790s, a new manor house was built by Miss Gwinnett between 1780 and 1790, and the old house which now lies derelict converted into a stable block. In 1846, after his return from Boulogne, France, where his father, ironmaster Jeremiah Homfray, had been living in order to escape...