Well hello from Margam country park near Port Talbot
and it's time for another staycation vlog as I explore my local area
of South Wales. Margan Park is really close to the m4
motorway and the Port Talbot steel works but as you'll see later it could be a
million miles away with its history wildlife and really
good views of the Glamorgan countryside and out to
the Bristol Channel
earlier in the yea,r during lockdown I did a video about the neighbouring
area entitled monks murder and mountains but at the time Margam Park itself was
still closed i'll put a link for that video in the
description below. The outdoor areas of Margam Park are now
open so we can have a closer look at the ruins of Margam Abbey also
the outdoors of Margam castle which is currently being renovated and
then i'm going to take a walk up onto the glamorgan ridgeway which is
dotted with prehistoric enclosures iron age hill
forts but first let's take a closer look at
Margam Abbey
Margam Abbey was a Cistercian abbey founded in 1147
and in his time was quite powerful and wealthy
only part of the church the ruined chapter house and a few fragments of the
neighbouring buildings now survive the most complete part is the south
transept its east wall has two windows with very
early decorated quatrofoil tracery
so I'm now standing in the ruins of the chapter house
which was built around 1200 most of these
were usually rectangular but the outside of this one
is 12 sided and the inside is actually circular
again just take a look at the size of these bases of the piers.
In its day it must have been really impressive imagine
in the 1200s most of the locals were living
in little huts but Margam Abbey flourished for about 200 years
but by the time of the dissolution of the monasteries
only nine monks remained.
This is what I love about living in Wales the bright sunshine
of earlier has disappeared it's clouding over
hopefully, it won't rain but now I'm going to head up to Margam castle
and up to the Glamorgan ridgeway and as if by magic the sun's come out again
so I'm now leaving Margam Abbey and walking up to
Margam Castle, it's actually called a castle
but in reality, it's a gothic revival Victorian
country house built by the Talbot family between 1830 and 1840
Margam Castle was owned by the Talbot family until 1941
after they sold the building it fell into disrepair and suffered a major fire
it is now in the care of the local Neath Port Talbot county borough council
and by the way it's said to be haunted!
as I'm walking past Margam Castle I found this stone
and there's a little sign next to it saying this is the Samson stone
it was found on Margam Moore's when they realigned the railway track
and the legend said a giant threw it from the top of Margam
mountain and it landed on the moors but in
reality they think it was part of a prehistoric
burial chamber
I prefer the giant's explanation myself so as you come up from Margam Castle
you're going to follow this blue arrow marked as the pulpit trail it's also
marked as the Ogwr ridgeway walk which is now known as the Glamorgan
ridgeway walk and as you come up to your left there's
a steep hill overgrown and at the top of that is an
iron age fort and this is what Cadw say about this
area here it's Mynydd Castell Camp
iron age enclosure roughly a D shape the site hasn't been excavated in any
great detail and the actual CADW report states the
site is well preserved and retains considerable archaeological potential
actually that goes for many of the areas around this,
uh Margam they haven't really been excavated in any great detail
but anyway we're moving on up to the mortgage ridgeway
I forgot to mention the practicalities Magam park is actually free to walk
into but to park your car it's six pound
fifty irrespective of the number of occupants
so if you cycle here it's free
as you walk up the hill you start to get great views of the valley
we're gonna continue to the top and get some great views
overlooking Porthcawl Port Talbot and out towards
the Bristol Channel so over there towards the coast
is Porthcawl and as we pan around that's the Kenfig pool then the
reservoir there belonging to Port Talbot steelworks
Port Talbot steelworks
So not far along the ridgeway just behind the path
there's there's a deer over there that's a deer park
so i don't know if you can make it out it's probably too far away but behind me
those woods over there within that there's a clearing
and there's an iron age enclosure again a farmstead
an oval-shaped enclosure with some banking
apparently, there's not much to see
and i don't really know how to get over that wall to get there and i'm a bit
short of time I need to go a bit further up the
ridgeway it's called the Danish Camp I don't know why it's long before the
Vikings ever got here so if you know why that is called the
Danish Camp let me know anyway for me
onwards along the ridgeway
so I've now reached the border of Margam Country park
and to continue on the ridgeway walk you have to get over this little ladder
see you on the other side hello let's continue
you can tell you're in Wales there's a sheep standing guard
can I pass?
I've come up the ridgeway walk and just on the left of it
I've come across another iron age enclosure
and I'm making notes see I've spoilt the magic now, we do make notes
this one in the CADW schedule is described as Camp North of Tonmawr
an earthwork enclosure probably dating to the prehistoric period
it consists of two polygon-shaped enclosures
the smaller placed within the larger and they say modern hedge banks
have broken through and partly destroyed the defences
around the south and the west sides but as you can see
I think I'm on the inner part now you can see the
mounds there in the ditches you can see clearly
the embankment coming down to the tree at the bottom and
slightly to the right, you should be able to make out a slightly smaller
less shaded embankment that's the inner enclosure so i'm going
to head up the ridgeway to my next stop which is described as
the Roman Camp in the 1930s there's some research and
they thought it was a a Roman Fort but
lately it's been identified as being Pre-Roman
dating back from the iron age so it's still called the Roman Camp
on the maps but it's probably iron age that's where we're heading to now
hopefully we'll get there in time, the park closes
at half past four
so who wants a cheap Christmas tree this year
so I did make it with time to spare to our last stop
which is just over there which is another prehistoric site
known as the Roman Camp let's go and take a look
so i've made it to the last stop of the day and this is
the monument described as the Roman Camp but as i mentioned earlier back in the
1930s it was suggested it was a Roman
encampment or fort of some sort but it's been later proved to be earlier
probably iron age it could have been Romano British you
know carried forward from the iron age times into the Roman times
like i said it's called the Roman Camp but there's another name for it
excuse my notes again it's also called
Caer Blaena Cwm
so anyway like I said like most of these iron age
enclosures there's not a lot to see but if you look carefully
you can see man-made shapes like embankments ditches and over there then
there's a sharp corner here so
let's have a quick look before it gets too dark
and I'm lost on the moors
again this is the top part we come in here there's a
a ridge there, ridge there, some sort the the ditch area
and it turns sharply this way
Well I'll sign off now before it gets too dark I hope you enjoyed
my tour of Margam Park and the Glamorgan Ridgeway walk
Don't forget to check out the video I mentioned earlier "Monks murder and mountains"
linked below so I'll see you in the next video, that's a bye from me, bye