This Abbey was founded in the second half of the 12th Century by the Earl of Gloucester. It was a daughter house to Clairvaux Abbey.It is believed that the abbey was built near to the site of a Celtic monastic house. Carved stones and monuments in the nearby Stones Museum point to an early Cristian presence.
The Cistercians worked the land and reared sheep, and they usually chose a remote site for their monasteries. It is reckoned that construction took around 40 years to be completed.
The abbey became, like many monasteries, a great centre of learning, and became very important in the social, cultural and religious life of this area of South Wales.
In 1536, Margam Abbey, like so many other abbeys, was dissolved by King HenryVIII, and was sold to Sir Rice Mansell.
For further information, and much more detail about the history of Margam Abbey,please click on the link below, where you will find much more about the history of this old Abbey.
The ruins of some of the Abbey still stand, and they give a clear impression of what a majestic building it must have been when the Cistercian monks lived and worked in this area.
The photos show what remains of the original abbey church and of some of the ruins still standing.
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