Gwydir Castle
An example of a fortified manor house dating back to c. 1500, it is located on the edge of the floodplain of the river Conwy, and overlooked from the west by the slopes of Gwydir Forest.
[3] By the 14th century, the Welsh knight Hywel Coetmor, who had fought in the Hundred Years' War as a commander of longbowmen under Edward, the Black Prince at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, is recorded as the first owner of a manor house on the site.
The turret was added around 1540 and John Wyn ap Maredudd's initials can be seen above the main entrance in the courtyard gatehouse along with the date of 1555.
King Charles is said to have visited Gwydir in 1645 as the guest of Sir Richard Wynn, 2nd Baronet, Treasurer to Queen Henrietta Maria, and Groom of the Royal Bed Chamber.
The 18th century consequently saw a period of some neglect (but in 1796 the title of Baron Gwydyr was created for Peter Burrell, 1st Baron Gwydyr, husband of Priscilla Bertie, 21st Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, who acted as Lord Great Chamberlain in 1780–1820), and by the early 19th century the estate largely comprised the parishes of Dolwyddelan (where the Wynns also had an ancestral home), Llanrhychwyn, Trefriw, and Gwydir, totalling some 55 square miles (140 km2).
The principle quarries on the estate were located around Dolwyddelan, where a syncline compressed the Nod Glas mudstones into slate veins.
The sale of the house in 1921 by the Earl Carrington saw it passing out of inherited ownership for the first time in over 400 years, and virtually all other lands were subsequently sold off.
[5] They have been carefully replaced in their original setting, and the restored dining room was re-opened in July 1998 at a ceremony attended by the Prince of Wales.
[8] The castle is set within a Grade 1 listed,[9] 10-acre (40,000 m2) garden, which contains some ancient cedars — one of which was planted in 1625 to commemorate the wedding of King Charles I to Queen Henrietta Maria.
An Elizabethan causeway called the Chinese Walk runs across the fields to the River Conwy, where the remains of the Gwydir Quay can be seen.
It has elaborate wood panelling, several family tombs and a stone coffin said to be that of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, moved from Maenan Abbey at the Dissolution.)
