Gwrych Castle (Welsh: Castell Gwrych pronounced [ˌkastɛɬ ˈɡwrɨːχ]) is a Grade I listed country house near Abergele in Conwy County Borough, Wales. On an ancient site, the current building was created by Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh and his descendants over much of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The castle and its 236-acre estate are now owned by a charity, the Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust.

The family had owned land in the area of Abergele since at least the 16th century and claimed much older descent. In the very early 19th century Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh determined to replace the existing house with a much larger building. Designs were prepared by Charles Busby and exhibited in 1815. Busby was subsequently sacked and Thomas Rickman engaged, while Bamford-Hesketh's ambitions grew from a Regency style country house into an enormous Gothic Revival castle. The foundation stone was laid in 1819. Bamford-Hesketh's heirs continued his building and at various times C. E. Elcock and Detmar Blow worked at the castle until it achieved its final, immense, extent. In the later Victorian and Edwardian eras the castle was run as a full-scale country house, receiving visits from Queen Victoria and Edward, Prince of Wales.

The presiding spirit was Winifred Bamford-Hesketh, Lloyd Bamford Hesketh's granddaughter, his sole heir, and Countess of Dundonald following her wedding to Douglas Cochrane in 1878. The marriage was not a success, and the countess pursued her interests at Gwrych and in London, while the earl served in Canada and as a courtier to Edward VII and George V. On her death in 1924, the countess left the castle, of which she had retained ownership, to George V, in the hope that it would become the official Welsh residence of the Prince of Wales but the gift was declined. It was subsequently re-purchased by her husband, but the family never returned to live there.

During World War II Gwrych was home to 200 Jewish children brought to Britain under the Kindertransport programme. At the war's end, the Dundonalds sold the castle. For the next forty years it operated as a tourist attraction and as a hospitality venue, but finally closed to the public in 1987. The next decades were disastrous for the structure; failed plans for development saw the castle asset-stripped of much of its fabric and furnishings, including the lead roofs, and by the 21st century it was a ruined shell. In 2018 the castle, and some 200 acres were sold to the Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust. The trust had been established by the author, Mark Baker, who had witnessed the castle's destruction as a child and had determined on its rescue. Since 2018, the trust has worked to stabilise and restore the castle. In 2020-2021 the castle received publicity and funding when it was used for the filming of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

Gwyrch (originally spelt 'Gwrŷch' meaning "hedged castle") occupies an ancient site. The earliest description is recorded in an early 16th century deed:

Indenture of demise, 20 April, 27 Henry VIII (1536), by Owen ap Gruffith ap Jevaun ap Gruffith (Owen son of Gruffydd son of Ieuan son of Gruffydd), to Gruffith ap Jevaun ap Gruffith (Gruffydd son of Ieuan son of Gruffydd), for the term of his life, of two parcels of land, in the town of Abergelle (Abergele), in the comote of Isulat (Isaled hundred), within the lordship of Dembych (Dinbych), the one in a place called 'y gwrych,' between the highway from Abergele to Conwey (Conwy) and the common pasture, &c. and the second in place called 'y morva,' (Y Morfa) next land of the heirs of Roger Mylton, &c.; rent, 2d. to the said Owen and to the king 2s. 9d. ^[1]

The Lloyds (Llwyds) of Plas yn y Gwrych were the ancestral owners of Gwrych and could trace their ancestry back to the medieval period.^[2][3] Situated within the Gwrych Castle Estate are a pair of Iron Age hillforts, a Roman shrine, lead and silver mines and medieval battle sites; the last of these^[4] are recorded on stone tablets at the principal entrance.^[5]

Gwrych Castle was built between 1810 and 1825 by Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh (1787–1861), in memory of his mother Frances Lloyd and her ancestors. It incorporated an earlier house that had been in the ownership of the Lloyds since the late-medieval period.^[6] Designs for Gwrych by Charles Busby were exhibited at the Royal Academy exhibition in London in 1815.^[7] Bamford-Hesketh subsequently turned to Thomas Rickman and designs for the castle evolved from a Regency style country house into a Gothic Revival castle.^[6] Queen Victoria is claimed to have stayed at the castle, during a visit to North Wales.^{[8][9][10][11]} In 1894 the castle was inherited by Winifred Bamford-Hesketh, Lloyd Bamford Hesketh's granddaughter, and his sole heir. Winifred had married Douglas Cochrane in 1878 and became Countess of Dundonald on her husband's succession to the earldom in 1885. The marriage was not a success and Winifred spent much of her time at Gwyrch and in London, choosing not to accompany her husband abroad when he served as General Officer Commanding the Militia of Canada between 1902 and 1904. The castle remained the countess' personal property and on her death in 1924 it was bequeathed to King George V in the hope that it would become the official Welsh residence of the Prince of Wales.^[12] However, the gift was refused and the castle passed to the Venerable Order of Saint John. In 1928, the castle was bought back by her estranged husband for £78,000 (equivalent to £4,700,000 in 2019). He was obliged to sell the contents to meet the cost.^[13]

During the Second World War, as part of the Kindertransport programme, the Government used the castle to house 200 Jewish refugees; it was run by the Jewish Zionist youth movement Bnei Akiva.^[15]

After the war, the Dundonalds put the estate up for sale and in 1946 it was purchased by Robert Rennie who opened it as a visitor attraction, "The Showpiece of Wales". It was then sold to Leslie Salts and was said to have attracted nearly 10 million visitors.^[16][17]

It was also used as a training venue for the English World Middleweight boxing champion Randolph Turpin in the early 1950s. In the early 1960s it was an occasional venue for the famous motorcycle Dragon Rally, and in the 1970s it was used as a centre for medieval re-enactments, attracting tourists with such events as jousting and banquets.^[18] Lemmy, the lead singer, bassist and primary songwriter of the rock band Motörhead claimed to have stayed at the castle.^[19]

The Cadw listing entry for the castle describes it as "a magnificent large scale example of a Romantic castellated mansion; particularly important for its relationship with its site and its spectacular and extensive Picturesque composition, one of the finest examples of its date in Britain".^[36]

• A page of Anne Wagner's scrapbook devoted to Mrs Browne of Gwrych depicting the original medieval building, Plas yn y Gwrych, prior to the erection of the castle, c. 1800
• Gwrych Castle in 1825, shortly after the Georgian castellated mansion had been completed
• Gwrych Castle in the 1920s, viewed from the Hesketh Tower