Gwydir Castle (including gatehouse)

Overview and Plan

Gwydir Castle is an extensive, irregularly planned house in the late Perpendicular Gothic style with some late 16th-century Renaissance detailing. The building has a roughly J-shaped plan, with its principal elevations facing southeast (toward the courtyard) and northwest. The primary blocks — the hall range and Solar Tower — stand at right angles to each other, facing southeast and southwest respectively into the courtyard. North and west wings join the hall range at either side, forming a U-shape to the rear. The Solar Tower is connected to the hall and north ranges by an L-shaped addition that projects into the angle on the northeast (terrace) side.

The tower rises three storeys plus an attic (originally four storeys), while the remaining ranges are two storeys. The house is constructed generally of large squared slate-stone blocks, with ashlar to the main faces, built on a chamfered plinth. Slate roofs with leaded parapet gutters sit behind characteristic finialled parapets on all ranges except the Solar Tower. Eleven tall ashlar chimneys stand at gable ends throughout, except for one lateral chimney to the rear (terrace side) of the tower. These chimneys have distinctive crenellations of carved slate above the capping. Stone-coped gable parapets appear throughout, with shaped kneelers to the Solar Tower.

Sandstone dressings to openings are mostly mid and late 16th century to the hall and Solar Tower ranges, and mostly circa 1828 to the north and west wings, these later additions imitating the earlier work.

The Solar Tower

The Solar Tower features a large storeyed porch. The lower section is probably mid-16th century and relates to alterations carried out by John Wynn ap Meredith. It has a large Tudor-arched opening with stopped-chamfered reveals, eagle and lion relief carvings to the spandrels, and a moulded, returned label. The label stops are carved with the initials I and W (for Iohannes Wynn).

The porch appears to have been heightened at the end of the century to create a wrap-around glazed bay serving the first-floor Great Chamber. This has a four-light window with arched-headed, leaded lights to the front and two-light windows to the sides, all with moulded, returned labels. Above sits a large square-framed, moulded recess containing a sculpted heraldic cartouche with the Wynn eagle. A pyramidal slate roof with oversailing eaves is supported on heavy, shaped corbels with faceted ends.

Original window openings (though some altered) flank the porch on three floors — one to the left and two to the right in each case. Two 19th-century occuli flank the porch roof under the eaves.

A full-height square stair projection stands to the rear with a coped and kneelered gable. This is an addition of circa 1540 and includes a large proportion of material re-used from Maenan Abbey. It features later 15th-century ogee tracery windows on three floors. To the left of the stair tower stands a large lateral chimney with a projecting, gabled breast. The west end chimney is gabled and diagonally offset at the top, surmounting a former garderobe projection.

The Hall Range

The hall range has a semi-octagonal stair projection to the right of centre on the courtyard side, re-used from Maenan, apparently in its entirety, circa 1540. It has ogee tracery windows to the top (as before) and a blocked four-centred-arched entrance to the southwest face. An early 20th-century Tudor-style entrance stands to the right. A gabled end chimney to the left gable is corbelled out at first floor and is gabled, moulded and diagonally offset.

Cross-windows appear on the ground floor, with arched-headed leaded windows of two to four lights on the first floor. A similar entrance appears on the northwest (Dutch Garden) side with cross-windows to the right and two two-light mullioned windows to the left on the ground floor. Twin and single-light cusped-headed Gothic windows are found on the first floor; most windows on this face have been slightly enlarged.

The North and West Wings

The north wing is mid-16th century, raised in the late 16th century. The west wing is a 19th-century balancing copy built to house a kitchen. Similar twin and single-light Gothic windows appear on the ground floor, mostly 19th century, though some are possibly late medieval in the earlier block. Arched, ovolo-moulded windows, twin and single-light, appear on the first floors — again, 19th century in the west wing, copying the original. Primitive figurative gargoyles appear on each gable end, two to each, and these are probably medieval.

A mid and late 16th-century gabled cross-wing adjoins the later west wing, facing the courtyard. It has a mid-16th-century Tudor entrance with I.W initials and spandrel carving as before, with a boarded and studded door. A first-floor 19th-century oriel window with stone roof stands above. There is a further mid-16th-century entrance to the terrace and a plain arched service entrance with label to the southwest face of the west wing.

The Gateway

Adjoining the western gabled cross-wing on the road side is the main gateway. This consists of a large chamfered Tudor arch with I.W initials and carved heraldic shields (bearing the Wynn arms) to the spandrels, with carved lion supporters as label stops. To the left of the arch is a carved datestone with the date 1555, and to the right, a similar stone inscribed "Rd (for restored) 1828." Further carved arms of the Wynn family appear above. Stepped coping to the wall above the arch features a later 16th-century re-set stone trefoil finial of Gwydir type, which also bears the I.W. monogram.

Large rubble piers project outwards flanking the gate, with stone benches to the inner sides. Adjoining to the right is a single-storey square gatehouse block with a flat roof and parapets as before. It has an entrance with boarded door and an adjacent cross-window to the northwest (inner) face and slit-light facing the road. A 20th-century rubble extension stands to the southeast.

Interior

Solar Tower Ground Floor

The Solar Tower has a composite boarded and studded oak door including a smaller, re-used early 19th-century Neo-Norman wicket door similar to those at Penrhyn Castle. The primary entrance is Tudor-arched and chamfered. The 20th-century ceiling re-uses stopped-chamfered and moulded beams and joists of 16th and 17th-century character.

A 3-metre-wide fireplace stands at the right gable end with a vast chimney flue and broach-stopped chamfered reveals, in part mutilated. There is evidence for a former mural stair to the left of the fireplace.

A composite staircase to the left end includes mid-18th-century oak dado panelling and moulded rail, 17th to 19th-century strapwork newel posts, and turned and twisted 19th-century balusters. A Tudor-arched, chamfered doorway to the rear, opposite the entrance, was originally external and since the mid-16th century has given access to the rear stair tower. This contains a four-storey newel stair, re-used and probably originally one of the west end or transept stairs of the abbey church at Maenan. Further primary fireplaces survive on the upper floors.

Ground-Floor Hall

The ground-floor hall (originally services) has a primary entrance to the garden side and opposing entry to the courtyard, which became a window in the late 16th century. To the left of this was originally a post-and-panel partition screen, now repositioned and fragmentary against the left end wall.

The heavy beamed ceiling has broach-stopped, chamfered main and secondary beams and stopped-chamfered joists. The timber-framed end wall to the right has a wide chamfered opening to a later 16th-century inserted fireplace and chimney. Above the fireplace and on one wall are heraldic plasterwork badges similar to those at Plas Mawr, Conway and Maenan Hall, both of circa 1580. These sections are original to Gwydir, though they appear to be repositioned, probably mid-20th century.

A large slate-slab floor, mostly 16th century, covers the hall. 17th-century dado panelling lines much of the southeast wall.

First Floor: Hall of Meredith

A spiral stone stair with worn steps leads to the Hall of Meredith on the first floor. The stair ceiling is original with moulded beams, carved foliate and heraldic bosses, and crenellated brattishing. A 16th-century carved, boarded door with contemporary decorative ironwork, raised slightly in the 1820s, provides entry.

The upper hall has arched-braced collar trusses, stopped-chamfered purlins and two tiers of cusped windbraces. A primary end fireplace has chamfered reveals and a stopped-chamfered oak lintel.

Carved and moulded 16th and 17th-century material survives relocated in several places throughout the building, as do various sections of small-field dado panelling. Cellars exist beneath the north and west wings.