Penrhyn Castle
Encyclopedia
Llandegai
Llandygai is a small village on the A5 road between Bangor and Tal-y-Bont in Gwynedd, Wales. It affords a view of the nearby Carneddau mountain range.-Prehistory:There is evidence of human occupation of this site from Neolithic times....
, Bangor
Bangor, Wales
Bangor is a city in Gwynedd, north west Wales, and one of the smallest cities in Britain. It is a university city with a population of 13,725 at the 2001 census, not including around 10,000 students at Bangor University. Including nearby Menai Bridge on Anglesey, which does not however form part of...
, Gwynedd
Gwynedd
Gwynedd is a county in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. Although the second biggest in terms of geographical area, it is also one of the most sparsely populated...
, North
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, in the form of a Norman
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
. It was originally a medieval fortified manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
, founded by Ednyfed Fychan
Ednyfed Fychan
Ednyfed Fychan , full name Ednyfed Fychan ap Cynwrig, was a Welsh warrior who became seneschal to the Kingdom of Gwynedd in Northern Wales, serving Llywelyn the Great and his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn...
. In 1438, Ioan ap Gruffudd was granted a licence to crenellate and he founded the stone castle and added a tower house. Samuel Wyatt
Samuel Wyatt
Samuel Wyatt was an English architect and engineer. A member of the Wyatt family, which included several notable 18th and 19th century English architects, his work was primarily in a neoclassical style.-Career:...
reconstructed the property in the 1780s.
History
The present building was created between 1820 and 1840 to designs by Thomas Hopper, who expanded and transformed the building beyond recognition. However a spiral staircase from the original property can still be seen, and a vaulted basement and other masonry were incorporated into the new structure. Hopper's client was George Hay Dawkins-Pennant, who had inherited the Penrhyn estate on the death of his second cousin, Richard Pennant, who had made his fortune from Jamaican sugar and local slateSlate industry in Wales
The slate industry in Wales began during the Roman period when slate was used to roof the fort at Segontium, now Caernarfon. The slate industry grew slowly until the early 18th century, then expanded rapidly until the late 19th century, at which time the most important slate producing areas were in...
quarries. The eldest of George's two daughters, Juliana, married Grenadier Guard, Edward Gordon Douglas, who, on inheriting the estate on George's death in 1845, adopted the hyphenated surname of Douglas-Pennant.
Penrhyn is one of the most admired of the numerous mock castles built in the United Kingdom in the 19th century; Christopher Hussey
Christopher Hussey
Christopher Edward Clive Hussey was one of the chief authorities on British domestic architecture of the generation that also included Dorothy Stroud and Sir John Summerson.- Career :...
called it, "the outstanding instance of Norman revival." The castle is a picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
composition that stretches over 600 feet from a tall donjon containing family rooms, through the main block built around the earlier house, to the service wing and the stables.
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
when she visited in 1859.
Hugh Napier Douglas-Pennant, 4th Lord Penrhyn, died in 1949, and the castle and estate passed to his niece, Lady Janet Pelham, who, on inheritance, adopted the surname of Douglas-Pennant. In 1951 the castle and 40,000 acres (160 km²) of land were accepted by the Treasury in lieu of death duties
Inheritance Tax (United Kingdom)
In the United Kingdom, Inheritance Tax is a transfer tax. It was introduced with effect from 18 March 1986 replacing Capital Transfer Tax.-History:...
from Lady Janet. It now belongs to the National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
and is open to the public.
Penrhyn's attractions include a formal walled garden, extensive informal gardens, a dolls museum, an industrial railway museum
Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum
The Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum is a museum of industrial railway equipment, located at Penrhyn Castle near Bangor in Wales.In the nineteenth century, Penrhyn Castle was the home of the Pennant family , owners of the Penrhyn slate quarry at Bethesda...
, a model railway museum and an adventure playground. Hanging on its walls is one of the finest art collections in North Wales, with works by artists such as Rembrandt, Canalletto, Richard Wilson and Palma Vecchio. The family began collecting paintings from the early years of the 19th century; this significant collection was catalogued by the 2nd Lord Penrhyn's daughter Alice Douglas-Pennant. The castle has views over the Snowdonia
Snowdonia
Snowdonia is a region in north Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three National Parks in Wales, in 1951.-Name and extent:...
mountains. In 2008/09 it was the National Trust's thirteenth most visited paid-entry property, with 156,575 visitors.
Cost
The cost of the construction of this vast 'castle' is disputed, and very difficult to work out accurately as much of the timber came from the family's own forestry, and much of the labour was acquired from within their own workforce at the slate quarry. It has been estimated that it cost the Pennant Family about £ 150,000. This is the approximate equivalent to about £49,500,000.See also
- Castles in Great Britain and Ireland
- List of castles in Wales
- List of gardens in Wales