Bethan is a early career architectural historian from Cardiff, with a particular research interest in the country houses and gardens of Wales. Her doctorate was awarded in June 2025 for her thesis entitled ‘St Fagans Castle: its Architectural and Landscape History’.
Bethan first discovered her interest in historic buildings while working as a Museum Assistant at St Fagans National Museum of History, a 100-acre open-air museum of historic buildings re-erected from every region of Wales. This led her to pursue an MSt in Building History at Cambridge University in 2018-2020. Bethan joined ISWE in 2020 to research St Fagans Castle, the Grade I-listed, Elizabethan country house at the heart of the museum. Her thesis takes a multi-period and multi-disciplinary approach to telling the story of St Fagans Castle, with chapters spanning the twelfth to the twentieth centuries and interrelated sections on architecture, designed landscape, and ownership. You can read more about the completion of this project in our blog post. Bethan is currently adapting her thesis for publication with University of Wales Press, and exploring opportunities to continue her research on the impact of the Renaissance on gentry houses in Wales.
Although Bethan has completed her PhD, she remains part of the ISWE team in her role of Research and Engagement Associate, helping to maintain the ISWE website and promoting our programme of work, activities and achievements to wider constituencies and communities both within and beyond Bangor University.
Bethan is the resident historian on the S4C television programme ‘Cartrefi Cymru’, which explores the history and evolution of houses in Wales, bringing architectural history to wider audiences. The first series considered the evolution of houses from the Tudor period to the present day over ten episodes, including visits to several country houses such as Llancaiach Fawr, Treowen, Llanerchaeron, Treberfydd, and Llangoed Hall. The second series, currently in production, looks at a different type of house in each episode, including workers' housing, eco-friendly housing, flats, cottages, farmhouses etc.
Bethan also works as a freelance illustrator of historic buildings, collaborating with various heritage organisations such as Amgueddfa Cymru to illustrate the newly re-erected Vulcan Hotel at St Fagans for a crowdfunding campaign; Nantgarw China Works to create a card depicting the site for sale; and UWC Atlantic College to illustrate their home St Donat’s Castle.
Visit Bethan's website or Instagram to find out more about her research and illustration work.
Contact Bethan:
engage.iswe@bangor.ac.uk
