PGW(Gm)17(CAE)

Ruperra Castle  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Caerphilly  

Rudry  

321976  

186385  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Deer and landscape park; formal garden and pleasure grounds; site of summerhouse  

1626-55; 1785-89; 1909-13; 1920s  

Ruperra Castle is registered for the survival of an unusual early Jacobean mock castle of exceptional historical importance with its attendant deer park and structural remains of contemporary formal gardens. The site includes an outlying hilltop mount of great historic interest, with spiral walk and stone-walled top, which is the site of a seventeenth-century summerhouse. During the early decades of the twentieth century the gardens were elaborately laid out, with a magnificent glasshouse, still largely intact, as the centrepiece. The registered park and garden shares important group value with the ruined castle, which is both a scheduled monument (GM379) and listed building (LB: 14069) together with its associated estate outbuildings, park and garden structures. Ruperra Castle is a ruinous mock castle situated on gently undulating ground at the southern foot of the Craig Ruperra ridge. It was built in 1626 and is of great historical importance in being a rare example of a Jacobean Renaissance mock castle of great sophistication for its date and location. To the south, east and west of the Castle there is a relict small park. It lies on undulating ground, backed to the north by the steep-sided wooded ridge which rises to a summit of 177m. The park falls into two historically distinct areas: to the west of the house is the ancient deer park; and to the south and east a small area of landscape park. The deer park was in existence in 1764, when a survey was made of Ruperra, but is probably much older, possibly having its origins in the late mediaeval period. A complex of roofless buildings and yards are situated in the park, on a south-facing slope, from which much of the park is visible. The 1764 survey suggests that these buildings were kennels, and later used as stables (2nd edition Ordnance Survey, 1901). To the east of the buildings, the south-facing slope is planted with mature sweet chestnut trees, forming a grove. A prominent, raised knoll planted with mature deciduous trees, mainly oaks, appears to be deliberate landscaping. The other main feature in this part of the park is a fine oak avenue which flanks the southern end of the south drive. The kennels, the clump on the mound and the avenue (the ‘Great Walk’) are shown on the survey of 1764. The eastern park consists of two large pasture fields dotted with deciduous trees, some of which are aligned on former field boundaries. On the south side the parkland is bounded by Coed Wern-ddu, which has a small fishpond at its northern end. The two parts of the park are separated by a tongue of woodland, mainly deciduous, dominated by oak, with some beech and lime. There are three approaches to Ruperra Castle, via drives from the south, east and west. The garden and pleasure grounds of Ruperra Castle lie on ground sloping gently to the south, with the house at their centre. They can be divided into three main areas: a series of formal terraces to the north-east of the house; an open informal area to the east and south of the house; and a belt of trees which form the wooded grounds to the west. North of the stable court is a small kitchen garden terrace. The terraces run east-west and lie to the east of the stable court and kitchen garden, from which they are reached through a short, brick-lined tunnel. There are two terraces, c. 100m long, divided by steep banks and backed by a mortared rubble stone wall, c. 3.5 m high, topped with flat stone coping. The second terrace is revetted by a stone wall, against the centre of which is a large glasshouse (LB: 20144) by Mackenzie & Moncur, which formed the centrepiece of the Edwardian formal gardens. It was built in 1912/13 and a plan of it indicates that the central pavilion was a conservatory and the side ones carnation houses. The second main area of the grounds is the large open, informal area to the east and south of Ruperra Castle. This is largely grassed and bounded by a rubble stone wall that is partly a revetment wall on the east side with a dressed stone, battlemented top on the curving section (LB: 20146). In the north-east corner is a narrow triangular area, backed on the north by the wall along the east drive. This is planted with large mature evergreen oak, oak, beech and sweet chestnut trees. In this grove, against the north wall, is a small summerhouse (LB: 20145). The south boundary is planted with mixed ornamental trees and large shrubs next to the wall. The south drive enters the grounds through a gap in the west end of the south wall. The third area of the grounds is the wooded belt down the west side. Trees are coniferous and deciduous and include pine, beech and copper beech. This side is bounded by a rubble stone wall c. 2.3 m high, with dressed stone coping. An unusual outlier to the grounds is a mound on the summit of Craig Ruperra, c. 0.5 km to the north-east of the house. The mound is the site of a summerhouse and has been landscaped as part of the Ruperra Castle grounds. It is reached by a track along the spine of the ridge, which starts at the west end by West Lodge. It has all the hallmarks of a mediaeval motte and it is likely that a motte was adapted in the seventeenth century as an ornamental feature. The present-day remains of that ornamenting are a narrow spiral path from the north-west side of the foot of the mound up to the top and a low drystone wall around the top. The path is revetted with dry-stone walling and planted on its outer side with yew trees. The 1764 survey is the first evidence for the summerhouse on Craig Ruperra. . The ridge is shown wooded. Immediately to the north of ‘The Garden’ are five parallel ‘lights’ cut in the wood (labelled ‘Lights cut through the wood from the walk’). There is a very small area of kitchen garden at Ruperra, on a terrace between the stable court and the east/west drive. It was made at the time that the stable court was rebuilt, c.1909. Towards the east end of the terrace are the remains of two free-standing glasshouses, aligned north-south, and a lean-to bothy against the west wall of the main garden. At the north end of the bothy is the tunnel leading into the main garden. Significant Views: Panoramic views from the mound and site of the summerhouse on the summit of Craig Ruperra Sources: Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan, 30-7 (ref: PGW(Gm)17(CAE)). Ordnance Survey Second Edition six-inch map, sheet: Glamorgan XXXVII.NE (1898; 1901).