Visiting Old Beaupre Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan

*Update when we visited this Cadw site a few weeks ago, it was open to the public although as it's a free and unmanned site they have decided to close it due to Covid 19 - this situation is constantly changing so please do check the Cadw website before heading out.

There are not many castles and medieval ruins locally to us that we haven't visited although recently I was going through all the Cadw heritage sites online and realised we hadn't visited Old Beaupre Castle - a lesser know about ruined medieval fortified manor house near Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan.

After I came across it online I did some research and came across a few sparse online reviews and discovered it was a bit off the beaten track and quite hard to find and awkward to get too, but we always love a challenge, and despite the Cadw directions being somewhat unclear we did manage to find it. Once we arrived as close to the Satnav postcode as possible we could see an old farm track which clearly states no public right of way to the castle so if you do visit in the future do not go down this path as it's private. We did eventually come across the very small lay-by (not a car park which the website mentioned) and an over-grown street sign to the castle which we missed on the first drive-by.

To access the Castle you need be walk through 3 fields using a public right of way path, please bear in mind this fields often have livestock in them, this time two of the fields had a herd of cows which seemed to take no notice of us walking past. I would say wearing closed shoes is the best idea as you do have to navigate through 3 fields, stiles and kissing gates as well as a short walk up hill to the Manor House.

Old Beaupre was originally built circa 1300 but was extended into the 16th century by the Basset family who owned this property for a long period. I was really impressed with how much was still standing, with some impressive features remaining including a three-story gatehouse and stunning renaissance style porch, decorated columns, fireplaces and large windows.

After the English Civil War the Basset family fortunes started to go into decline and after selling Old Beaupre it fell into disrepair but there is still lots to explore and discover here and is a great micro-adventure for families looking for somewhere quiet. We were the only people there and it looked like it hadn't been visited for a while so social distancing was certainly easy.

As I said at the start of the post the Covid situation is constantly changing - this castle was open just after lockdown restrictions were lifted but how now been shut again so please do check opening times first on the Cadw website.