Chirk Castle

Chirk Castle is a medieval fortress built in the form of a hollow square with bold round towers at each corner and central towers rising from a battered plinth on each side. The castle has undergone significant modifications and additions spanning from the 14th century to the 19th century.

The Barbican The barbican is positioned on the north side between the northeast tower and the centre tower, approached by a ramped bridge with a pointed arch of 2 chamfered orders. The parapet is of 19th-century ashlar with ridged copings. The barbican has a tall outer arch and within it an inner arch of 2 orders behind the portcullis drop. The mantled and supported Myddleton Arms, designed by A W Pugin, are set in a recess above. There are two levels of small side arrowslits and studded framed doors. Within the entrance are 19th-century doors with pointed arches on each side and a timber joisted ceiling. The inner doors are set in another arch of 2 chamfered orders, one inscribed with the date 1669 TM. The doors are framed and set inside the arch.

Exterior Elevations The main towers are three storeys high with stone mullioned and transomed windows and crenellated parapets. These were added in the 19th century after the upper stages of the towers had been demolished in 1659 and the 18th-century balustrade was removed. The plain stone curtain between the towers features a series of irregularly placed stone windows, some with horizontal hood moulds.

The west elevation is similar, with comparable windows, though the crenels of the parapet are partly blocked. A dog-leg external stair rises to a doorway, and further south is the base of a garderobe chute. Beyond the centre tower, the castle was demolished, with the curtain stopping at an irregular break that was rebuilt in the 14th century in rubble as part of a rebuild of the south side, and later continued in the 19th century to join the stables.

The south elevation is largely obscured by 18th and 19th-century stables and workshop additions, but beyond the west privy garden wall, the 14th-century character is evident in two 2-light transomed and cusped windows to the chapel and a further trefoil light. Other windows date to the 19th century. Two gabled buttresses are present.

The east elevation features a fine 5-light window to the chapel south of the central tower, created by Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1894 to replace one by E W Pugin. The wall is deeply battered below. The curtain between the centre and northeast towers has similar stone mullioned and transomed windows with label heads, also repeated on the towers, and a crenellated parapet.

Courtyard Elevations The west side is largely medieval, dating to circa 1300, although the upper part of the north end is rebuilt. There is a low 2-centred door to the Guard Room and an adjacent trefoil-headed door. Above, bracketed out on corbels, is a bellcote of 1609, refurbished by E W Pugin, now with a clockface of 1960 over a 2-light window. The bell stage has 2 by 1 shouldered open arches and a hipped lead roof. To the left is the medieval Adam tower, crenellated with spiked coping to the merlins. Other windows are mostly 3-light mullioned and transomed.

The south side dates to 1529 and is three storeys high with mullioned and transomed windows and doors with depressed arches. The imprint of 9 gables from 17th-century roofs is visible, replaced in the 18th century when the wall was taken up to a level parapet. Two light attic windows are present. The door to the Chapel at the east end has a segmental pediment containing a large weathered winged putto.

The east side dates to 1664-1678 and is a 2-storey range with 7 mullioned and transomed 3-light windows and a parapet. Against this is built a single storey range by E W Pugin circa 1846, buttressed between windows with a central porch and crenellated parapet. Arms are displayed over the door.

The north side dates to circa 1630-40 with later alterations and irregularly placed mullioned and transomed windows. A 2-centred chamfered arch to the kitchen has an inscription reading: "THIS NEW BUILDING AND THE TOURE WAS BU[ILT] ALL IN ONE YEARE BY TH[E] OM MYDDLETON KNIGHT 1636". To the right are steps to a door by Pugin dated 1846.

Interior Of the early medieval accommodation, no work survives outside the towers and wall passages. The south range, rebuilt circa 1400 after the reduction of the building's size, contains the great chamber on the first floor and the chapel at the east end rising from ground to first floors.

The kitchen and Cromwell Hall on the north side was the dining room in the 17th century, classicised circa 1778 and re-medievalised by A W N Pugin in 1845-6 in association with the decorator J G Crace. This space has a stone fireplace by Myers with painted arms in cusped recesses above and a ceiling on moulded beams. An oak panelled screen at the lower end leads to the cross passage and buttery beyond, and from it access is gained to the grand staircase in the centre north tower.

The grand staircase is an open-well stair with a fine arcaded iron balustrade, designed by Joseph Turner in 1777-8. It has marbled Ionic columns at each corner supporting a beamed and moulded ceiling. The staircase was restored to the 18th-century design in the 1950s. On the upper floor of this range is the state dining room, formerly the chamber over the buttery, also in the classical taste by Turner, with a coved ceiling and panelled walls decorated with early classical moulded husk motifs. It was restored in 1963 and features a fine 18th-century marble chimneypiece.

The adjoining saloon, the great dining room in the 17th century, has a magnificently enriched 15-panelled ceiling incorporating cameo paintings by G Mullins, an Irish landscape painter. It features a marble Corinthian chimneypiece incorporating jasper by Bromfield of Liverpool, dated 1773.

This room leads enfilade to the corner drawing room, completed in 1796 and redecorated by Pugin and Crace. It provides direct access to the long gallery in the east wing, 30 metres long, begun in 1670 for Sir Thomas Myddleton, 2nd Baronet, and completed in 1678, probably by the same team employed by Lady Myddleton (Wilbrahim) at Weston Park, Staffordshire. The gallery features bolection moulded panelling and acanthus cornice with broken pediments over doors in the Restoration manner, and a panelled heraldic ceiling. Tiles by Minton and Hardman were commissioned in 1847-8.

The Chapel, located in the southeast corner, was originally fitted out in the 1670s. It was restored and reroofed by Sir A Blomfield in 1894, with further work carried out by Lord Howard de Walden in 1912 when it was converted to a music room.

The east range contains much work by A W Pugin, since altered, and ceilings by Thomas Harrison, including a ribbed ceiling to the library.