Margam Park

Margam Castle and Gardens

At the heart of Margam Park is Margam Castle, a 19th Century gothic mansion which is set in the 1000 acres of glorious parklands and is partially open with Free Admission for the public to browse. The Castle is only a 15 minute walk from our campsite and just a 5 minute cycle ride. The courtyard is home to the information centre and gift shop, where you can stop and talk to volunteers of the Friends of Margam Park, whom offer a wealth of knowledge, craft sessions and guided walks. This is an ideal place to try some local cuisine from the courtyard cafe whilst admiring the gothic architecture that surrounds you as you eat.

The Margam Castle ornamental gardens are open with various walks amongst both modern and classical trees, shrubs and flowers, lakes which have evolved since medieval times. The castle gardens houses a magnificent 18th Century Orangery, an impressive and picturesque 12th Century Chapter House. Here you will also see the magnificent historical fern-leaved beech ‘Chapter House Tree’ which was awarded the  ‘Wales Tree of the Year’.

The Farm Trail

When camping at Red Rock Wild Camping, hopefully you’ll have a love for our farm animals. If you yearn to see a wider variety of animals, then why not visit Margam Park’s very own Farm Trail.

Here you’ll see the new new family of Alpacas, including Gwyn and Taffy the new Alpaca Crias (kids), Black Mountain Sheep, Shetland Ponies, Donkeys, Pigs, Peacocks, Rabbits, Chickens, Turkeys and Cows and also a few rogue deer that seem to enjoy jumping the fences into the animal pens.

Upon your return to the campsite, later in the evening, most likely, you’ll be counting the sheep in your sleep!

Childrens Playground

If you are staying in our campsite with young children, we highly recommend that you visit both the playgrounds in Margam Park.

Adventure playground
Outside the front of the Castle, adjacent to New Pond (the boating lake), you’ll find the wooden adventure playground which has a towering castle, climbing frame, netted disc swing and large rope swing, fireman poles and slides. Your Kids can swing, tunnel, slide, and climb their way through the playground, hopefully they’ll be so tired when they return to the campsite, they’ll fall asleep nice and early for you.

Fairytale Land
At the lower section of the Ornamental gardens, next to the Orangery, you’ll see our classic Fairytale Land Playground. Here, your children will discover a variety of miniature houses, each of which have a different Fairytale theme (only open on weekends during autumn/ winter), this park is more suited for younger children as it has dedicated toddler playground apperatus. most children enjoy the large Adventure castle which has hidden rooms and is a great place for playing Tag and Hide-and-Seek.

Family train

Should you drive from our campsite around to the main entrance of Margam Park, you can catch the train from the car park up to Margam Castle.

This  is a great way to view the park prior to exploring it. The train travels past the wild meadow, farm animals, the discovery centre, boating lake and adventure playground.

After a long walk in the park, often the train ride down to the car is the best reward. The train runs during the spring and summer months only, and if you’re a lover of trains, pop down to Porthcawl where Lucie the Land Train is running all year long.

Margam Deer Herd…

Margam Park have the best deer herd in Wales, with Pére-david deer, fallow deer and red deer. All of which are often visible from our campsite.

If you care to walk across the road from our campsite you will be able to the various herds of deer grazing the pastures and hillside and can often hear the stags battling it out during  rutting season. These famous Margam Deer Herd have over 500 acres (200 hectares) of parkland to freely graze through, so if you do decide to venture into the park, we’ll guarantee that you’ll bump into them easily whatever the weather.

The Pulpit Viewpoint

The infamous Bro Stone is located at the Pulpit Viewpoint on top of Margam Park. The ‘Bro’ Stone was unveiled in 1989 by Prince Charles (The Prince of Wales), who later became King Charles III. The Bro inscription means ‘Community in Welsh and overlooks the old region of Glamorgan.

There are cycle routes and hiking routes up to the viewpoint and the landscape is spectacular… a sensational panoramic view overlooking Margam Park, the campsite, and half of South Wales. You can see everything between Cardiff Airport through to Swansea and the Gower and across the Bristol Channel to Devon.

From the Pulpit Viewpoint you can look down upon the Red Rock Campsite, experience Margam Park from a new perspective, and view Port Talbot and the surrounding areas. The Spectacular views to Devon, Somerset, the Gower Peninsular and the Glamorgan Heritage Coast are just breathtaking and many have been able to see Lundy Island on a sunny day. Evening walks up here are magical as you experience the most breathtaking sunsets.

We cannot stress enough how amazing the view really is. Many people visit Margam without realising how easily accessible this viewpoint is, even when you climb the hill, you will undoubtedly pass the entrance to the old Monks Mine halfway up the hill (which was used to mine coal back in the 1200’s), which is a great spooky feature for children (some say a dragon lives in there, that’s why it has a cage on it!). Passing the mine entrance, you can now look back at the campsite as this is a stunning view in itself.

Make sure you don’t miss this fantastic viewpoint on your stay at the campsite.

Go Ape Treetop Safari

The Margam Park Go Ape course is the only Treetop Challenge in Wales and it is a spectacular one with the largest Tarzan tree swing that will have you free falling for a massive six metres!

This one is perfect for those adrenaline junkie teens and adults alike…

You’ll be  shown the ropes (quite literally) at a safety briefing and then escorted up into the tree canopy. At this stage your nerves will take over and after a while enjoy the Tarzan swings, rope bridges and zip lines.

With zip lines up to 180m, you really will get a sense of aerial adventure and will still be chatting about it around the camp fire upon your return to our campsite.

Margam Park Adventures

Within the Castle Courtyard, you will find the HQ of “Margam Park Adventure’ outdoor activities specialists. they offer activities including Mountain Biking, Canoeing, Kayaking, Stand Up Paddle Boarding, Raft Building, Archery, Go Kart Hire, Bushcraft and Orienteering and Map Reading – all from one amazing location!

If you fancy exploring the park, they have a variety of bike and go karts available for hire for all ages and abilities. The Go karts are superb and tehy have a variety of 1, 2 & 4 seater Go Karts …it’s a great way to go off the beaten track and have fun before you return to our campsite.

Mountain Bike Trails

Whilst not comparable to Afan Forest MTB trails, Margam Park’s mountain bike trails are short, fun and rewarding. The trails available are:

There is a 4km Family Trail (Green) along flat gravel and tarmac roads. It passes the adventure playground, farm animals and East Lodge Car Park. This is ideal for families.

For those looking at proper off-road mountain bike trails, then these are highly recommended:

• Lockdown (Blue – Great trail for older kids and our favourite trail)
• The Tunnel (Blue – through the rhododendrons)
• Princes Pronk (Red- Intermediate)
• Deers Leap (Red- Intermediate)
• Adder Valley (Red- Climb)
• Rock’n’Rut (Red – rocky intermediate)
• Economic (Red – Climb)
• Stags Antler (Red – Intermediate)
• Stags Antler (Black – Severe downhill)
• Plantation (Black – Severe downhill)

further information on these downhill trails: https://www.trailforks.com/region/margam-country-park/trails/

For most experienced riders riding out from our campsite, our favourite loop is to climb up to the pulpit, then follow the trails in this order: Rock’n’rut > Princes Pronk > Deers Leap > Economic > Stags Antler (red) > Adder Valley > The Tunnel > Lockdown. it takes about 60-90 mins and the welsh hills will give you a good workout!

In addition to the bike trails, there is a small skills/pump track next to the Go Ape cabin, where many love riding around the berms, rollers and boardwalk. Even if you didn’t bring your bike,  just head down to the castle, hire a bike and explore the trail, all this on your doorstep… its just another reason to camp at our campsite at Margam Park.

Walking Trails

Margam Park’s 800 acres of countryside provides a perfect place for a walk in the park!

Within the park itself, you are free to roam and explore, and whilst there is mobile phone coverage in 99% of the par, it is hard to get lost.

There are four waymarked routes for you to follow within the park boundary walls:

• The Pulpit Trail
• Monastic Trail
• Cwm Philip Trail
• Craig-y-lodge Trail

For the experienced walkers, you can enter Margam Forestry via Margam Park or explore Mynydd Margam and Craig-Yr-Aber Woods whereby you can easily visit the Monks Bath, Druids Stone Crircle, Capel Mair Monastic Ruins, and remains of the old WWII Radar Station.