Qualla: Gwydir Castle

Gwydir Castle: Introduction

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dara Jasumani, CC BY-SA 2.0. When Peter Welford and Judy Corbett bought Gwydir Castle in 1994, they were tracing not just rooms but missing rooms. The 1640s panelled dining room had been stripped in 1921 and sold at auction to William Randolph Hearst, the American newspaper magnate, who in turn bequeathed his treasures to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The carved panelling sat in storage. The Corbetts found it, negotiated for years, and brought it home. In July 1998 the restored dining room was reopened in its original setting with the Prince of Wales among the guests. The panels had been gone for seventy-seven years. They now hang where they were carved to hang.

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Image: Dara Jasumani | CC BY-SA 2.0

Gwydir Castle: Layers of Time

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Waterborough, CC BY-SA 3.0. Fortifications have stood on this floodplain west of Llanrwst since around AD 600. The river Conwy curves past, and the slopes of Gwydir Forest rise behind. Llywarch Hen, a bardic prince of Rheged, fought a bloody battle nearby in AD 610. The kingdoms of Gwynedd and Deheubarth cl...

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Image: Waterborough | CC BY-SA 3.0

Gwydir Castle: The Wynns and Their Visitors

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Waterborough, CC BY-SA 3.0. Through the Tudor and Stuart periods the Wynns were among the most powerful families in north Wales. Gwydir was the seat of the Gwydir estate, a holding that at its peak spread across thirty-six thousand acres of deer park and quarry and mountain. Katheryn of Berain, the formidab...

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Image: Waterborough | CC BY-SA 3.0

Gwydir Castle: Decline, Fire, Abandonment

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. In 1678 Mary Wynn married Robert Bertie, Lord Willoughby de Eresby and later first Duke of Ancaster, and Gwydir passed by marriage into a Lincolnshire-based dynasty that visited rarely. The eighteenth century brought neglect. The early nineteenth century brought selling off. The ...

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Image: Public domain

Gwydir Castle: Restoration

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hogyn Lleol, CC BY-SA 3.0. Arthur Clegg, a retired bank manager, bought the castle in 1944 and spent the next twenty years on it with his wife and son. Peter Welford and Judy Corbett bought it from Clegg's heirs in 1994 and continue the work today. Judy Corbett's book Castles in the Air, published by Ebury...

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Image: Hogyn Lleol | CC BY-SA 3.0

Gwydir Castle: Gardens and Chapels

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Llywelyn2000, CC BY-SA 4.0. The ten-acre garden is Grade 1 listed. The Old Dutch garden holds ancient yew topiary and an octagonal fountain. A 1590s Renaissance arch rises from the terrace. The Royal and Statesman's gardens contain Welsh oaks planted to mark the 1899 royal visit and another in 1911. An Eliz...

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Image: Llywelyn2000 | CC BY-SA 4.0