Powys Digital History Project

Upper Swansea Valley
Craig-y-nos Castle 3
by Len Ley
A neo-gothic castle
The estate had been entered into Chancery and was finally brought by Morgan Morgan of Abercrave for £6000. Limestone quarries above Pentre Cibbarth were in full production and lime was burnt in the nearby kilns.
Deposits of rotten stone were exploited anew and the huge quantities were taken to the canal at Abercrave and supplied to the tin-plate industry as a polishing agent.

Captain Powell's
neo-gothic
castle with
Craig-y-rhiwarth
looming in the
background

Photograph
by kind
permission of
Brecknock Museum

Craig-y-nos before 1878
  Mr Morgan and his family settled at the castle where his son, also Morgan Morgan, joined him soon afterwards. Both families lived together happily for several years, each with a kitchen in what was the basement. A massive pillar stood in the middle of the larger kitchen, where a bottle containing a current newspaper and freshly minted coins were said to have been buried.
At the time of the sale a large plantation of fir trees stood between the castle and the quarries above. The trees were about 80 years old, of fine girth and length, with squirrels leaping from branch to branch.
As the decade grew toward it’s close, the current owners decided to leave, and a remarkable chapter in the history of Craig-y-nos was about to unfold. 
  There are 10 pages on Craig-y-nos. Use the box links below to view the other pages.