page_title: Penrhyn Castle
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Penrhyn Castle / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Interior of Penrhyn Castle, UK
context_page_description: Penrhyn Castle is a country house in Llandygai, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales, in the form of a Norman castle. It was originally a medieval fortified manor house, founded by Ednyfed Fychan. In 1438, Ioan ap Gruffudd was granted a licence to crenellate and he founded the stone castle and added a tower house. Samuel Wyatt reconstructed the property in the 1780s.
context_section_description: The present building was created between about 1822 and 1837 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 (1764–1840), who had inherited the Penrhyn Estate on the death of his second cousin, The 1st Baron Penrhyn (first creation; 1737–1808), who had made his fortune from slavery in Jamaica and local slate quarries. The eldest of George's two daughters, Juliana, married an aristocratic Grenadier Guard, Edward Gordon Douglas (1800–1886), who, on inheriting the estate on George's death in 1840, adopted the hyphenated surname of Douglas-Pennant. Edward, the grandson of The 14th Earl of Morton, was created The 1st Baron Penrhyn (second creation) in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1866.
  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 cost the Pennant family an estimated £150,000. This is the current equivalent to about £49,500,000.
  Penrhyn is one of the most admired of the numerous mock castles built in the United Kingdom in the 19th century; Christopher Hussey called it, "the outstanding instance of Norman revival."  The castle is a picturesque 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.
  It is built in a sombre style which allows it to possess something of the medieval fortress air despite the ground-level drawing room windows. Hopper designed all the principal interiors in a rich but restrained Norman style, with much fine plasterwork and wood and stone carving. The castle also has some specially designed Norman-style furniture, including a one-ton slate bed made for Queen Victoria when she visited in 1859.
  The 4th Baron Penrhyn died in June 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 from Lady Janet. It now belongs to the National Trust and is open to the public. The site received 109,395 visitors in 2017.
  In 2020, the Trust was working on a plan to include coverage about the owners of its properties who had links to colonialism and slavery. That will including the Castle which was built from profits made by a family that used "hundreds of enslaved people". Visitors to the castle will find information about Richard Pennant, who by 1805 "owned nearly 1000 enslaved people across his four plantations in Jamaica".
caption: The carved stonework staircase at Penrhyn
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