Llandough Castle

Llandough Castle is a multi-period house incorporating substantial remains of a former castle. It comprises a 15th-century south-west castle turret and 15th-century walling to the adjacent south-west wing, extended probably in the late 16th and 17th centuries and now incorporating 18th-century features. A north-west wing with a bowed north-west end dates to the turn of the 19th century. A probably early to mid-19th-century north-east wing has been partly demolished, with only one bay remaining at each end, now known as Llandough Castle flats. The former turret was connected to a gatehouse (separately listed) by a stone wall, of which footings still remain. The north-east wall of the former courtyard is separately listed. The building is constructed of stone with a slate roof.

The south-east elevation displays the 15th-century turret, possibly partly refenestrated in the 16th century, with a two-light flat-headed window to the third floor. The main part of this elevation is of three storeys and attic, three bays wide. The ground floor has two French casements with internal shutters, and a square-headed late 16th to early 17th-century stopped and chamfered doorway to the right. The first and second floors each have three sash windows, three panes wide, with stone voussoirs. Three gabled dormers, each with a two-light window with small panes, project from the roof. A large 19th-century conservatory with a three-bay roof stands against the ground floor, with two end bays.

The south-west elevation shows the 15th-century turret at the south end with single-light, narrow-chamfered openings on both ground and first floors, and a third-floor opening above a corbel table. Adjacent to this is a south-west gable of the south wing with slate cladding and a three-pane sash window on the ground floor, again with internal shutters. Slate hanging continues northwards, facing part of a late 18th to early 19th-century three-storey wing with dentil cornice. This section includes a three-pane sash window on both ground and first floors, followed by a two-light rectangular bay window with sash-lights dated 1881 and contemporary internal shutter.

The north-west elevation features a bowed front to a three-storey wing at the south-west end. The ground floor has three fixed windows; the first floor has three taller later 19th-century sash windows; and the second floor has three shorter three-pane sash windows. A dentil cornice runs to the parapet, with a peaked slate roof behind. Two bays remain of a former six-bay, two-storey wing to the north-east, one at each end. The south-west bay contains a round-headed doorway with fanlight with intersecting tracery and half-glazed panelled door, fronted by a stone porch with a square-headed doorway.

The south-west ground-floor room features a probably early 18th-century bolection-moulded fireplace in the north-west wall and a probably contemporary shouldered architrave to a doorway in the north-east wall. The room has dado panelling and a plaster ceiling divided by plaster beams into three panels, with panelled reveals to the doorway between the south-west and north-west rooms. There are six panelled doors and doorcases throughout this space. The north-west ground-floor room contains a stone fireplace with columns in the north-east wall, a 20th-century insertion. The basement includes a cellar with wine shelves and a bowed north end with vaulted ceiling. A round-headed doorway with intersecting tracery and six-panelled door leads from a south-east room into the entrance hall. A later 20th-century staircase ascends to the attic, replacing a former staircase that was in the partly demolished wing. The second-floor room of the bowed three-storey wing features a barrel-vaulted ceiling above a cornice and was previously used as a music room. It contains a large mahogany fireplace with pairs of flanking columns.