Cyfarthfa Castle

Cyfarthfa Castle is the Grade I-Listed centrepiece of Cyfarthfa Park and is home to a museum, art gallery and until 2014, Cyfarthfa High School. The castle was built in 1824 by the architect Robert Lugar for the Crawshay family who controlled the largest ironworks in the town. Now a £50 million regeneration project is underway which will see a 20 year masterplan developed to identify a range of cultural, industrial heritage and landscape projects around the castle and grounds. Led by Ian Ritchie Architects, the project team comprises landscape architect Gustafson Porter + Bowman and heritage consultant Fourth Street. The proposals include creating a museum learning zone, collections store and research centre, as well as an enterprise centre. Currently the project team have a year to prepare a creative, multi-layered masterplan ‘featuring a new museum or visitor attraction capable of receiving around 300,000 visitors a year’ that will focus on the history of industry in the region.