Qualla: Oystermouth Castle https://qualla.com/oystermouth-castle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/j/j/oystermouth-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Oystermouth Castle https://qualla.com/oystermouth-castle Oystermouth Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/oystermouth-castle/ Photo credit Nigel Davies, CC BY-SA 2.0. William de Londres of Ogmore raised a wooden castle here in 1106, on a low limestone hill where the Mumbles peninsula meets the curve of Swansea Bay. The Welsh of Deheubarth burned it ten years later. He rebuilt it. They probably burned it again in 1137. The Londres line died out in 1215, by which point Llywelyn the Great had taken Gower back for the Welsh, and only in 1220 did the English government finally hand the lordship to John de Braose, who built the stone castle that still rises above Mumbles today. The medieval grade-school version of Welsh history is that the English came in, conquered, and stayed. The actual record at Oystermouth is messier, and more interesting, and ran for more than a century.

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Image: Nigel Davies | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/j/j/oystermouth-castle-wp/gcjj-oystermouth-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Oystermouth Castle: The de Braose Rebuild https://qualla.com/oystermouth-castle/ Photo credit Throwawayhack at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. By the end of the thirteenth century the de Braose family had made Oystermouth, not Swansea Castle, their principal residence. They could afford to. A high curtain wall went up around a courtyard. Three-storey residential blocks with fireplaces and garderobes on each floor were a...

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Image: Throwawayhack at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/j/j/oystermouth-castle-wp/gcjj-oystermouth-castle-the-de-braose-rebuild.mp3 0:06 2 full Oystermouth Castle: Aline's Chapel https://qualla.com/oystermouth-castle/ Photo credit Bill Boaden, CC BY-SA 2.0. The most distinctive feature of the castle today is not its curtain wall or its gatehouse, but the second-floor chapel attributed to Aline de Breos, daughter of the last de Braose lord. She inherited the lordship in the early fourteenth century and improved the chapel into one of...

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Image: Bill Boaden | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/j/j/oystermouth-castle-wp/gcjj-oystermouth-castle-alines-chapel.mp3 0:06 3 full Oystermouth Castle: The Pleasant Ruin https://qualla.com/oystermouth-castle/ Photo credit Rodw, Public domain. A 1650 survey of Gower described Oystermouth as an old decayed castle of no use, but of a very pleasant situation. The line is almost touching in its honesty. The military function had vanished. The residence had been abandoned. What was left was a picturesque ruin on a hill abov...

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Image: Rodw | Public domain

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/j/j/oystermouth-castle-wp/gcjj-oystermouth-castle-the-pleasant-ruin.mp3 0:06 4 full Oystermouth Castle: Glass Bridge, Old Stone https://qualla.com/oystermouth-castle/ Photo credit Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales from Wales/Cymru, CC0. In 2009 the Welsh government announced £19 million for heritage sites across the country, and Oystermouth received about £1 million of it. The castle closed in 2010 for refurbishment and reopened in July 2011 with new visitor facilities, an education space, improved access, and a...

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Image: Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales from Wales/Cymru | CC0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/j/j/oystermouth-castle-wp/gcjj-oystermouth-castle-glass-bridge-old-stone.mp3 0:06 5 full