A Tudor mansion was later built on the site of the former monastic ranges by Sir Rice Mansel as a county residence.
Before the end of the decade, plans show the inclusion of several new buildings and features, including the Temple of the Four Seasons, the stone facade and the gardener's cottage.
[4] The 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge Margam Park Railway conducts visitors around the grounds in the summer.
Of the scheduled monuments, two are Iron Age hill forts, two are medieval religious sites, one is a museum and one is a World War II installation.
[a] Mynydd y Castell Camp is a large hillfort enclosing 2.7 hectares (6.7 acres) in a D shape, on an isolated hill 500m east of Margam Abbey.
[8] Half Moon Camp is a small Hillfort on a hilltop north of Margam Abbey, on the opposite side of the valley from Mynydd y Castell.
The gable-ends, with window tracery are the principle survivals, and provided a gothic landmark and viewpoint for the 19th-century parkland of Margam Castle.
[10] During the 19th Century the Talbot family gathered together a collection of early Christian memorial stones from the locality, and placed them in and around the Abbey Chapter House, within what is now the Park.
In 1892 they were put in the care of the Commissioners for Public works, and in 1932 they were moved into the nearby Church schoolroom, to become the Margam Stones Museum, now managed by Cadw.
[11] The Park also houses Margam Castle, a Tudor Gothic mansion built by Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot in the early nineteenth century.
[14] On the escarpment above the motorway is one of a network of early warning radar stations that were built around the coast of Britain from 1941, to detect German bombers and shipping during World War II.
The Margam station, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, has the inland route of the Wales Coast Path running past it.