Cowbridge

A prosperous Norman town, home to Wales' largest vineyard

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Cowbridge or Y Bont Faen, has been a key town in the Vale of Glamorgan since Medieval days and today, it boasts a high level of prosperity. Take a walk down the high street and the first thing you’ll notice is the proliferation of high class shops, bars and restaurants. Originally built on a Norman grid system, visible in its mile long main street, the town’s 14^th century walls and one gateway, South Gate still stand. For a better understanding of the town’s history, the Cowbridge Museum is well worth a visit. It’s housed in cells beneath the elegant Town Hall, which started life as a House of Correction. Close to the town’s South Gate is the Grammar School which was founded in 1608 and rebuilt in the Gothic style in the 1850s. Hannibal Lecter or Anthony Hopkins, as he is otherwise known, was an old boy here. Nearby, a stroll around the Cowbridge Physic Garden will educate you in the curative properties of plants. Take a short stroll out of town along the banks of the River Thaw and you’ll come across the impressive ruins of Beaupre Castle, an Elizabethan manor house built by the local noble family, the Bassetts, Cowbridge even has its own vineyard, the largest in Wales, the Llanerch Vineyard, on the outskirts of the town.

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