St Donat's Castle

St Donat's Castle.
St Donat's Castle in St Donats, Wales, is a medieval castle in the Vale of Glamorgan, about 16 miles (26 km) west of Cardiff, and about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of Llantwit Major. The site, on cliffs overlooking the Bristol Channel, has been occupied since the Iron Age, and was by tradition the home of the Celtic chieftain Caradog. In the 12th century, the de Haweys began the present castle's development, followed by Peter de Stradling. The Stradlings held the castle for 400 years, until the death of Sir Thomas Stradling in a duel in 1738. By the early 19th century it was only partly habitable. William Randolph Hearst, the American newspaper tycoon, bought it in 1925 and expanded it with elements from other ancient structures, such as the roofs of Bradenstoke Priory in Wiltshire and St Botolph's Church in Lincolnshire. Bernard Shaw described the castle after Hearst's reconstruction as "what God would have built if he had had the money".