Sunday Stroll

Day 6 of The UK COVID-19 lockdown and another sunny dry day which helps; we walked from our house to Ruperra Hillfort that overlooks The Bristol Channel, Cardiff and Newport cities.

Before the climb I took this telephoto of Plas Machen Manor House from its rear. It's seen some things over 500 years, including pandemics like we have today!

Plas Machen, the Elizabethan manor house, was built in 1490 for Thomas Morgan, Esquire to the Body of Henry VII. Remaining part of a substantial C15 mansion house, seat of the Morgan family until they moved to Tredegar House (Newport) in the 1660s. A large part of the mansion was demolished in the earlier C19 and the remaining part restored for the Tredegar estate c. 1869. The demolished part had a circular room called the hunting room with a rich stuccoed ceiling depicting Diana in the middle with seats, churches and hunting parties in 12 surrounding compartments.

But after Tredegar House was built it became a tenanted house and it lost a lot of its glories over the centuries. Today it is a private house and a third of its original size, but even so it has 20 rooms.