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Swansea Castle is a Norman castle founded in the early twelfth century as part of the Anglo-Norman conquest of Glamorgan, likely established by Henry de Beaumont, first Earl of Warwick, around 1106. The castle occupies a strategic position overlooking the River Tawe and Swansea Bay, and originally comprised a substantial stone keep set within defensive earthworks and palisades. The surviving remains consist primarily of the fragmentary ruins of the Norman keep, which once rose as a formidable rectangular structure dominating the settlement below. The castle served as an important administrative centre and stronghold for the Anglo-Norman lordship of Gower throughout the medieval period, though it was damaged during Welsh uprisings and fell into decline after the fourteenth century.
Swansea Castle is a scheduled monument protected by Cadw under reference GM012. View the official record →
Swansea Castle is a Norman castle founded in the early twelfth century as part of the Anglo-Norman conquest of Glamorgan, likely established by Henry de Beaumont, first Earl of Warwick, around 1106. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Cadw under reference GM012.
Swansea Castle dates from the medieval period, and is classified as a castle. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Swansea Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Cadw — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Wales. The official designation reference is GM012.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Original Swansea Castle (0.1 km), Foxhole River Staithes (1.2 km), White Rock Copper Works (1.7 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 13 strands of Swansea Castle's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Swansea Castle stands on South Wales Upper Coal Measures Formation, bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.