Penrice Castle (Mansion)

Penrice Castle is a three-storey house in fine ashlar masonry with an attic in the roof and a basement. The north-facing front addresses level ground, but the land falls sharply at the rear, where the basement is fenestrated and functions as an additional storey below plinth level. The roof is slate and lead behind a low parapet, with two transverse pairs of brick chimney stacks.

The front elevation displays five windows with the central three grouped in a slightly projecting pedimented bay. A small Roman Doric porch of two columns with pilasters and a pediment marks the centre. The plinth, a string course at first floor level, and the cornice continue around the house. The windows are sashes with concealed frames in diminishing tiers. The ground and first storey windows are hornless sashes of twelve panes; the second floor has similar windows of six panes, except at left where two sash windows of four and four panes are separated by a mullion. The ground-storey window to the right is blind. Two pedimented dormer windows punctuate the roof. The basement is lit by a narrow semi-covered area.

The south elevation is also of five windows, with the central three grouped in a bold semicircular bay. Ground storey windows to south and west have top sashes of four panes plus margins and bottom sashes of a single pane plus margins. The basement windows to the south have cambered heads and are of six panes. Both end elevations contain three windows. The west elevation includes two original blind basement windows; the central blind basement window is recent.

The service wing to the east is of two storeys at front, in line with the main elevation. The plinth and string course continue around it with a similar cornice. Three windows are present, the right and middle bays forming part of the original design; the left bay was added following 1960s demolition. The first storey has nine-pane hornless sash windows and the ground storey has twelve-pane examples, with security bars to the front. At the rear, a large basement porch features two Tuscan columns supporting a balcony with stone balusters. Windows and a door overlooking the balcony are round-headed with margin panes to the sashes and keyed architraves.

The ground storey is entered through a vestibule with mahogany double external doors of three panels each, flanked by shuttered windows. A fireplace and symmetrical doors occupy the left; a door ahead opens to the drawing room, and a door to the right leads to the dining room. These doors and the fireplace feature friezes with paterae in square beaded frames alternating with fluting. Door cornices are finely fluted.

The drawing room bow windows retain original drop cresting for curtains, with joinery formed on the curve. The doors to the vestibule and dining room have fielded panels in rectangular frames of fluting with corner paterae and scallop edging, guilloche architraves, and friezes decorated in low relief with candelabra and anthemion. The cornices display fluting, scallops and bay leaves with urns at the ends. Pilasters carry scallop decoration and caps with palm leaves. The same candelabra and anthemion design appears beneath the wall cornice, above a moulded dado. This interior establishes an Adamesque decorative theme repeated with less elaboration throughout the main rooms.

The drawing room fireplace is Italian and highly ornate, featuring a Bacchus or Orpheus on a floral mosaic frieze with leopards. The dining room doors display moulded and fluted architraves with fluted paterae, plain pilasters carrying enriched brackets, and a frieze with low relief anthemion and vessels flanked by urns and a fluted cornice. A white marble fireplace of Italian workmanship features scrolled brackets and an elliptical centre medallion with Venus and Cupid; a bronze garland extends over the medallion and flanking frieze sections. The ceiling frieze repeats the anthemion and vessel motif.

The study, south of the stair-hall, contains a fireplace with low relief alternating acanthus and anthemion flanked by urns over enriched pilasters.

The main staircase occupies the east side of the house, rising in two flights with quarter landings opening into the spine corridor on the ground storey. It features a moulded mahogany handrail on three plain balusters per tread, fluted newels of column form, oak treads with scrolled brackets on a moulded string.

The first floor sitting room has a fireplace with a low-relief frieze of anthemion flanked by urns and a highly enriched cornice. The ceiling frieze repeats the anthemion and vessel design.