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One of the fun things we did on our recent short break to Swansea Bay in Wales was visit Oystermouth Castle. Oystermouth Castle sits on the hill just off the front in Mumbles and to be honest doesn’t look like much from the sea front. Looks can however be deceiving and the Castle was significantly bigger than it looked and a lot more entertaining than I expected.

Oystermouth Castle is a Norman castle, which in its heyday welcomed royalty.  It was attacked many many times and was left in ruins for a long period of time. It wasn’t until 2010 that a major restoration project saved the castle from deteriorating further and it is now open and run by Swansea Council as a local heritage attraction.

We arrived as it opened at 11am during the Easter holidays with a plan to spend a couple of hours there, which we did  and could probably have spent longer.  Here are 5 reasons to Visit Oystermouth Castle with Kids.

Holiday Activities

Go in the holidays when they are likely to have some crafty activities on in the workshop at the front of the Castle. Mine only spent about 15 minutes in there as we had a tour starting but could easily have been in there for an hour!  They are really cheap at about 50p per child and a good way of staying out of the rain/sun/wind etc!

Grafiti

Oystermouth Castle has ancient graffiti, all across its walls. The kids had fun trying to work out what it said and what people might have been trying to say with the drawings.

Artist Impressions

Only  a shell of the Castle that once would have been remains, but there are some great artists impressions dotted about to explain to visitors what the Castle would have looked like.  The kids really enjoyed this as they were able to appreciate what would have been where and this visualisation really worked for them.

Secret Staircases and Hidden Vaults

The kids loved the stories of what the vaults/dungeons might have been used for, and in particular the descriptions of what the toilets might have looked like and where they would have been. Don;t all kids love a bit of toilet humour!

Turrets and Walls

The kids absolutely loved marching across the walls and pretending to be soldiers.

We were very lucky on the day we attended to have a brilliant tour around the castle with the incredibly engaging Erika who is responsible for Marketing at the Castle and more. They put on tours from time to time so definitely find out when these are on, and try and visit then!

Also: Don’t miss the glass bridge through the chapel.  This is quite a stunning piece of restoration.

NB: We visited Oystermouth Castle as guests of Visit Swansea but all views and opinions are my own.

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