Ruthin Castle Hotel

Ruthin Castle Hotel

This substantial hotel comprises a complex of buildings assembled through enlargement in various phases. The main structure is a tall north-south block featuring an octagonal tower, with a lower L-plan wing to the west and a corridor link with square tower to the east. The eastern section also has a canted wing and a north-south wing with clocktower. The early 19th-century parts are rendered in simple Picturesque style, while the mid-19th-century work adopts a more Tudor Gothic character. The building is castellated, rising 2 or 3 storeys, with the earlier work faced in white limestone rubble and the later work in coursed red sandstone with mullioned and transomed windows.

Originally, the building consisted of two separate blocks linked by a narrow passage, with a Picturesque 'gateway' set beneath the corridor. Mid-19th-century remodelling completely transformed the left-hand block, enlarging and refronting it while retaining some of the 1826 masonry on the east side. The result is an austere 3-storey entrance front dominated by blank walling and early 16th-century-style oriel windows at the centre and across the canted angles. The lights have chamfered arched heads with sunk spandrels; those to the first floor are transomed. The entrance itself is a moulded 4-centred arch set off to the right, with a hoodmould terminating in heraldic animals. The right-hand return wall has single lancets to each storey, transitioning to the limestone walling of early 19th-century construction. This section is 5 windows wide with red sandstone dressings matching the mid-19th-century front, including 2- and 3-light transomed windows with hexagonal leaded glazing to the ground floor and right end, and a central oriel window. The west elevation is 4 windows wide in red sandstone, featuring grouped terracotta chimneys, mullioned and transomed windows beneath square hoodmoulds with some carved endstops, a 2-storey canted bay second from the right, and an ogee doorway to the left, inserted into what was a 4-light window. An octagonal 4-storey tower is attached to the left, with matching windows and a rear vice-turret. The rear elevation is 3 windows wide with canted angles to the left of the tower.

The earlier east block contains a 3-storey square tower set at a skewed angle, with red sandstone dressings to 3- and 5-light transomed windows. The structure steps down to the left to a corridor link with the main range, which has two small casement windows above a pointed-arched gateway with flanking pedestrian doorways (now blocked with stone) providing access to the rear gardens. The corridor's rear displays a gothic-glazed window, and a stair turret in the left angle is supported on cusped sandstone brackets. To the northeast, the character becomes distinctly Picturesque Gothic: a 2-storey range steps back, with 2-light wooden casements featuring gothic glazing beneath high square hoodmoulds. A long screen wall adjoins the east side of this range, fronting a walkway with pointed-arched doorways and roundels. This 2-storey range returns northward and terminates in a broached octagonal tower, to which Clutton added a red sandstone clock stage. Continuing northward are irregular 1-storey and attic ranges, with 1825-dated rainwater heads. A block to the left features 3 wide Tudor-arched openings, infilled with a doorway to the left and windows to the right and centre, with a low octagonal tower of red sandstone at the right end. The rear of the 2-storey range has gothic-glazed windows matching the front, and a red sandstone canted bay at the right end, with alterations to the rear of the 1-storey ranges.

Adjacent to the northwest angle of the main block, next to the octagonal tower, is a later L-shaped 2-storey range in Tudor Gothic style, faced in limestone with red sandstone mullioned and transomed windows. The west-facing range is 2 windows wide; the south-facing main range is 6 windows wide with a large full-height red sandstone canted bay second from the right. The rear has similar window detail and a tall slender polygonal tower attached to the rear wall at the right end. A further L-shaped range, probably dating to around 1920, is set at right-angles to the left, roughcast to the east side with gothic-style wooden casement windows; its south end has red sandstone windows consistent with the rest of the building.

Interior

The interiors of the main block are predominantly Tudor and High Victorian Gothic in style. Fine fireplaces occupy prominent locations—those in the hall and Cornwallis Room are probably by Burges—alongside ornate doorcases, some with ogee heads and bell bases. Ceilings are panelled and ribbed throughout, while doors feature 6 panels with cross-over ribbing. The plan moves from an inner porch into a lobby, which leads to the main hall (now reception). Beyond lies a rectangular inner hall with a staircase rising from its right (east) side. Two doorways to the rear of this hall provide access to the library and Cornwallis Room (originally the dining room), while a further doorway to the southwest opens into the Solar (Drawing Room).

The reception hall features a square-panelled ceiling with quatrefoil bosses and a painted stone fireplace to the east, decorated with coats of arms and flanked by timber colonnettes, together with wainscott panelling. The inner hall has a stellar-ribbed ceiling and a medievalist wooden fireplace. The staircase rises beneath an archway on the east side, with low quatrefoil-pierced balustrading and deeply hollowed handrails.

The Solar to the southwest displays ornate pink and gilded ribbing to the ceiling and a coved cornice. It retains similar fixtures and a heavily embellished late Gothic timber fireplace by Wynne and Lumsden, with decoration in the style of Crace. The Cornwallis Room to the northeast has been narrowed to create a corridor to the later wing but retains its ribbed ceiling and stone fireplace (probably by Burges). This fireplace is of unusual design, with a carved tree trunk trailing around it, naturalistic panels, and two large roundels containing sheep and boar heads.

The fine octagonal Library, accessed via the west side of the corridor, features wainscott panelling and a ceiling panelled with squares and octagons.

Access to the earlier parts of the building is gained along a winding corridor to the left of the main staircase. The character rapidly becomes Gothic, with 4-centred-arched doorways, cusped and panelled doors and shutters (some with Gothic fanlights), and ribbed vaulted ceilings. Stone flagged floors lead to the far end, where a Jacobethan fireplace stands in the Board Room. At the very end is the banqueting hall, open to the roof with large trusses (probably 19th century), a jester's gallery beyond the fireplace, and stone flagged flooring.