Securing the future of Gwrych Castle

Gwrych Castle is a Grade I listed country house in north Wales. Surrounded by 250 acres of gardens and grounds, it was built by Lloyd Hesketh Bamford Hesketh, heir of the Lloyds of Gwrych between 1810 and 1822, incorporating his family’s ancestral home. The castle then passed to the Earls of Dundonald by marriage to the Bamford Hesketh heiress, Winifred.

After decades of use as a visitor attraction the castle was completely abandoned in 1994 and the interior was asset-stripped. Since that point all interiors have been lost and the castle survives as a roofless ruin. Then came along eleven year-old Mark Baker in 1996. He passed the castle daily and found the destruction so appalling that he went on to found the Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust at the age of 12.

Fast forward to 2018 and the castle was offered for sale by auction. Through the intervention of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Richard Broyd Charitable Trust, the castle was purchased by Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust, on behalf of the nation.