Built in 1824, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery – described as the most impressive monument of the Industrial Iron Age in South Wales – was once home to Ironmaster William Crawshay II and his family. It serves as a reminder to the Ironmaster’s dominance over the town and the wealth the iron industry brought to the area.
Now home to a fantastic collection of artefacts spanning 2000 years of Merthyr’s history, the Museum houses the first steam whistle, the first voting ballot box and dresses by Laura Ashley and Julien McDonald.
At the castle you can admire the extensive fine and decorative art collections including Swansea, Nantgarw and Wedgwood porcelain and art by Penry Williams – the Welsh Turner, and George Frederick Harris. Stroll through the atmospheric social and industrial history galleries which chart the rise of this once great ironmaking town and learn about Richard Trevithick’s Penydarren Locomotive of 1804, the first locomotive to pull a load along rails. Or discover the roots of the Labour movement, from the Merthyr Rising of 1831, and the martyrdom of Dic Penderyn, to the first Labour MP – Keir Hardie.
