St Donat's Castle

St Donat’s Castle stands on cliffs above the Bristol Channel in the Vale of Glamorgan, about twenty-six kilometres west of Cardiff. The site has been occupied since the Iron Age and was once linked to the Celtic chieftain Caradog. The present stone castle began in the late 12th century with a keep and inner ward built by the de Hawey family. The Stradling family took over in the late 13th century and held the castle for four centuries, expanding it with a gatehouse and curtain wall. The castle’s fortunes rose and fell with the Stradlings, who served as magistrates and MPs across several centuries. The castle is worth the journey for its layered past and later transformations. The third Sir Edward Stradling fought at Agincourt and married a Plantagenet descendant. A later owner, Edward Stradling, created a celebrated library regarded as the finest in Wales of its time. In the 20th century, William Randolph Hearst bought the castle and added salvaged roofs from English priories and churches. Bernard Shaw later remarked that the rebuilt castle was what God would have built with unlimited funds. Visitors find a Grade I listed castle with medieval walls, a 16th-century gatehouse and Hearst’s controversial additions. The grounds include terraced lawns where John Wesley once preached to a crowd of five thousand. Today the castle houses Atlantic College, a United World College with around 350 international students. The interior features Edwardian drawing rooms restored by the noted architects Bodley and Garner. Views stretch across the Bristol Channel from the cliff-top site.