Well you joined me today overlooking the stepping stones
and the old ruins of Ogmore Castle near Bridgend
This afternoon I'll be walking to the pretty village of Merthyr Mawr
with its quaint thatched cottages and then down the lane to Merthyr Mawr dunes
and the mysterious haunted ruins of Candleston Castle
Apart from the ghost stories and legends I've already done a few videos about the
actual history of these places and i'll put those links in the
description below. But let me tell you about the ghost of
Ogmore Castle the ghost of the white lady
The ghostly female figure was said to wander the castle grounds
one night she led a man to the old castle tower
and under a heavy stone revealed the castle's hidden treasure
a cauldron of gold
the spirit allowed the man to take half the treasure for himself
however, as time passed the man got greedy
and later returned to take even more gold
this angered the spirit and as he walked home
the white lady changed to something more sinister
her hands became sharp claws and she attacked the man
although the man survived the attack he was cursed
and was in intense pain at the edge of death
but he couldn't find any rest he couldn't die until he confessed
his greed so as you walk from Ogmore Castle to the
old village of Merthyr Mawr you have to cross the
Ogmore River just upstream from here a few hundred
years ago used to be an inn run by a character
called Cap Coch which simply means red hat in welsh
apparently, he used to wear a red hat similar to the ones they used to wear in
the french revolution but anyway many travelers
who stayed there never got their destination
and bodies were washed up on the banks of the river
and also at the river mouth of Ogmore by Sea
suspicion fell on Cap Coch but nothing could be proved
the bodies stopped being washed up but after his death, the inn fell into
disrepair it was finally demolished and the people
clearing it started to find bones in the cellar
of the inn and also in the grounds surrounding
the inn. In the fields and the woods so I wonder how many of those people
still lie undiscovered in this area.
So i'm now walking into the old village of Merthyr Mawr
although the buildings here have undergone minor renovations
the general appearance does date back to the original 16th
and 17th century
so this is the 19th-century parish church
of Saint Teilos although relatively new it was built on an older medieval site
well the reason I've come to this graveyard which is relatively new
is they've got a collection, some remnants of old headstones and crosses
dating back the 11th and 12th century many were found in the grounds
themselves but also in the surrounding area.
So this is the Merthyr Mawr stone collection and the earliest stone
in the collection dates from the 5th century
so this is the earliest stone they've got
it's inscribed vertically in latin and apparently the part that remains
translates to 'the son of' this is another very old one I don't
know if you can make out the cross so that cross there
that was carved in the early 12th century
that one is a section of a slab dating back again to the 11th and 12th
century. There's a legend about one of these old
stone crosses which i'll talk about when we get to
Candleston Castle.
So I've now made it to Merthyr Mawr our sand dunes
it may seem quiet and wild but people have occupied this site for thousands of
years remains have been unearthed dating back
all the way to the stone age.
The most noticeable site in the area are the ruins of the 14th-century manor
house known as Candleston Castle when you
visit you'll really feel the building's
ominous presence.
Well one of the legends about Candleston and the surrounding area
is of the Goblin Stone let me tell you about that.
The stone is an old Celtic cross which is said to be haunted by a ghost
who forces passers by to embrace the stone
the hands and feet are then entangled in the intricate carvings of the stone
the story probably comes from the number of stones found in the area
like the remnants we've seen in the churchyard of Saint Teilos
another mystery of Candlestone is the lost village
it's thought that a small village once lay near the house
but strangely the houses and the inhabitants
disappeared without a trace.
Any settlement or village was probably buried by the shifting sands of the
dunes or was it something more sinister?