Deganwy Castle Hotel

Deganwy Castle Hotel

A large hotel in mild Georgian style, developed in several phases and grouped in a line with further additions behind. The building comprises a 4-storey west tower to the left end, then a 2-storey 3-bay range, a lower 2½-storey 4-bay entrance range, and a higher 3-storey 3-bay east range brought forward. The lower roofed 4-bay entrance range likely represents the earliest part of the development, extended westward and later to the east. Walls are whitened pebble-dash, roofs are slate, and stacks are roughcast and pebble-dashed.

The west tower provides the main external focus. Its lower storey has cambered 2-pane sash windows. The first floor front features an oriel window with parapet and a sash window of 1 over 2 panes, while the left side wall has a plainer replacement window under a cambered head. The second floor has segmental 2-pane sash windows to the front and left side, above which is a corbel table and cornice. The upper stage is narrower with replacement windows to the front and left side, and a small-pane 3-light window to the right. A truncated steep pyramidal roof has prominent ironwork cresting and a weathervane.

To the right, the 3-bay range has three first-floor windows renewed as top-hung casements in 19th-century openings, with wooden shutters and a sill band. Its ground floor is obscured by a single-storey 20th-century extension with sawtooth ground plan and plain large windows.

The lower central entrance range is asymmetrical with a wide gabled bay advanced right of centre, featuring bargeboards and a pendant finial. The entrance is on the left side of the advanced bay in an added porch that continues as a flat-roofed conservatory across the right-hand bays of this block, linking with a modern extension of the left-hand range. The conservatory is open to bays one and two beneath margin-glazed upper lights with entablature and cornice. The entrance has a pediment with double steel-framed half-glazed doors and margin lights beneath a round-headed radial-glazed overlight. In the broad gable are 2-pane horned sash windows on each floor with an additional window at the gable apex. Similar windows to the left have first-floor windows beneath gabled dormers with decorative bargeboards. To the right of the broad gable, a narrower bay has an added lean-to at ground floor, a single 2-pane sash window above, and a modern dormer in the roof.

The east range has late 19th-century character, measuring two and a half storeys with three windows and a hipped roof. The ground floor has a flat-roofed extension to the centre with a large inserted window to the right, inserted doors and further extension to the left. The first floor has a central 2-pane horned sash window flanked by oriel windows with lean-to roofs and tripartite sashes. The second floor has 4-pane sash windows beneath dormer gables, with grouped 4-pane sashes on each floor facing the road.

Behind this range are two further ranges with late 19th-century character fronting the road: a 3-storey 5-window range and a lower 2-storey 4-window range, both with mainly 2-pane sash windows. Behind the west tower is a 1930s neo-Georgian 3-storey flat-roof extension, nearly square in plan with a symmetrical facade arranged 3-3-3 with the central three bays advanced, throughout fitted with small-pane sash windows.

Interior features include a room in the entrance range on the left side with panelled wainscot, panelled shutters, and an ashlar Gothic chimneypiece said to have come from Pabo Hall. The chimneypiece has a shouldered 4-centred arch above which is a relief inscription reading "welcome ever smiles" with a raked hood containing a tablet inscribed "E&A B 1885" (the monogram EB appearing on Pabo Hall outbuildings). In the centre-left range is an open-well stair with plain balusters and wreathed handrail. The first floor retains some panel doors with panelled reveals.