PGW(Gd)58(CON)

Gwrych Castle  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Conwy  

Llanddulas and Rhyd-y-Foel  

292734  

377547  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Picturesque park walls, lodges and estate buildings; picturesque terraced garden  

1819-1830s  

Gwrych Castle is located on the on the coast of north Wales, on the west edge of Abergele. It is registered for its spectacular and romantic flight of gothic fancy, with picturesque gothic park walling, lodges, and towers, around the prominent picturesque landmark of Gwrych Castle, with a large-scale walled and turretted terraced garden. There is group value with the Grade I Listed Gwrych Castle (LB 231) and with several Listed lodges and other features within the park and gardens. The landscape was designed for visual impact and to provide outstanding views, and this remains so today. Gwrych Castle is set on rising ground overlooking the sea and is surrounded by parkland. The park has origins in the mid eighteenth century. The castle was built to replace Grade II Listed Old Gwrych (Hen Wrych), now on the northern boundary, in the period 1819-22. The creation of the present park, below and around the castle, probably began at the same time, if not before, and was formed from the consolidation of several holdings belonging to the Hesketh Estate. By 1839 the drives were in place. There were originally six, each with an entrance lodge in the same gothic style as the castle. One has been demolished leaving Grade II* Listed Kings Lodge (Abergele Lodge) (LB 233) on the east off the A547, Nant-y-bella Lodge (LB 19037) off a minor road to the south-east, Hen Wrych Lodge (LB 19039) on the north off the A547, Tan yr Ogof Lodge with walls and towers (LB 232), also on the north off the A547 and behind it a Grade II Listed castellated gate lodge (LB 19043). The park was enclosed within a Grade II Listed estate boundary wall of local limestone (LBs 18659 & 19044-5). An additional lodge outside the boundary to the south, Betws Lodge, formed a dramatic entrance to woodland used as a hunting and shooting reserve (Grade II Listed, LB 18660). Within the wood is Grade II Listed Lady Eleanor’s Tower, strikingly located on a crag (LB 19036). The estate was broken up in 1946. Sales particulars describe all the parcels within the wall - that is the area below the castle, and the woodland behind it - as ‘parkland’. Much of it has since been reused as a golf course though superficially it retains the original wood-pasture appearance. During the life of the park land to the west of Old Gwrych was farmland pasture with isolated trees and clumps of woodland, and remains so today. The garden was built at the same time as the castle. It consists of two pleasure gardens, enclosed by castellated walls punctuated with machicolated turrets, attached to the castle on its eastern side. The tops of the towers in the western enclosure form viewing platforms. The eastern enclosure has a castellated screen wall with a large gothic window. To the east the garden becomes more wild and by ascending steps a series of terraces are reached. The slopes between the terraces are densely planted with shrubs. A series of eighteenth and nineteenth-century walled kitchen gardens and orchards lie just to the west of the Old Gwrych Lodge at the north end of the park. They consist of a castellated stone outer wall with Gothic embellishments (Grade II Listed, LB 275). Within this perimeter are two brick-walled gardens. To the south lies another garden this time walled with stone, the inner walls castellated. The main walled garden is irregularly placed within the stone perimeter walls, arranged to face south. The arrangement of these gardens has left large, odd-shaped spaces between, which have in the past been planted as orchards. Glasshouses within these gardens have now gone. Opposite the estate manager's house at Tan-yr-ogof are two small walled gardens, with castellated walls. The outer one has a well and small building with the remains of cold frames. The other contains pigsties and a fake tower in the south-western corner. Setting - Gwrych Castle is set on rising ground overlooking the sea and is surrounded by parkland and gardens which provide a setting for the castle. Significant views - From the house there are spectacular views out to sea. The positioning of the castle allows it to be seen as an impressive structure from lower ground to the west, east and north-east. Source: Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 98-9 (ref: PGW(Gd)58(CON)).