Penrhyn Castle

This morning we left for our last castle field trip of the semester around noon to Penrhyn Castle in Llandygai. I was especially excited to see this castle because I have ran past it so many times and have always wondered what the castle was like inside. The Penrhyn Castle was home to the Pennant family and their many servants over 150 years ago and is still in very good condition today, with all of the rooms still furnished and decorated. The castle was very large and had a stone wall surrounding the whole land they owned, covering 2.5 square miles! The Pennant family gained their fortune through slavery at their Jamaican sugar plantations, but added to their fortune through the success of the slate mines they owned, referred to as the Penrhyn quarries. We entered the castle and began our extravagant tour through all the bedrooms, dining rooms, and kitchens. One of the first rooms we entered had a billboard made completely of slate. Slate was popular throughout the castle and the men especially liked this unique object. The Tea Room was one section of the castle where the women could enjoy a nice cup of tea and chat. The room had drapery wallpaper and a beautiful marble table, with many nice comfortable couches. And to think this was just the tea room! The next room we entered was called the Ebony Room because all the furniture in the room was made from dark wood, giving the room an almost mysterious feeling. On one of the walls there was a picture of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus. It almost seemed out of place in such a dark room. We then walked up the large detailed spiral staircase to the bedrooms. Just opposite the stairs and above was an overhanging lamp held up by a statue hand, meant to represent a light guiding the way. The first bedroom we entered was called the State Bedroom where important people slept if they were to visit. This room had a huge canopy bed with 15ft ceilings and a separate changing room and bathroom. The bathrooms in the castle were the first to have indoor plumbing, which was quite unique during the 1850s. Another bedroom we saw was the Slate Bedroom with a bed carved completely from slate and an amazing view of the slate mines the Pennant family owned right outside the window. Queen Victoria is said to have slept in this bed when she came to visit the castle. As we were walking around the castle I noticed the thick doors and walls that separated the rooms from one another. Each door was about 3 inches thick! There were many pictures throughout the castle of the castle itself in the distance with the Welsh mountains and ocean in the picture as well as various pictures of the Pennant's sugar plantations in Jamaica. Another bedroom that was really unique was the Indian Bedroom that contained stuff from Eastern Europe and the wallpaper hand painted in India. Above the bed was a painted cockle said to wake up the Lord in the morning sleeping in the room. There was even a small chapel in the castle, where the servants were to attend everyday. The Dining Room was really extravagant with the table all set up, ready to be eaten at. The different utensils used were really interesting. There were pictures throughout the room of the Pennant family and a secret area where a screen could be moved for the men to pee if they needed to during dinner. Outside the Breakfast room/Small Dining Room there was a large picture of the workers at the Penrhyn quarry, which covered 3,500 acres. We passed through the Servant's Hall that had over 50 bells hung from above with a label of the room that each bell represented. These bells could be rung throughout the castle in the various rooms to call for a servant and a boy would be watching to see what bell rang and go to the housekeepers and tell them. The last area we visited was the Kitchen, which was made up of many different rooms. It looked as if there was a separate room for desserts, meat, and dishes. The kitchen had various tools used for cooking such as a copper fireplace, which was later replaced by a coal-bunker, pastry ovens, gas stove, 3 gas grills, and an interesting turning spit that was controlled by the strength of the fire below. The castle was very extravagant inside and I couldn't imagine a single family living in such a large building. The family left the house to the government because government taxes reached up to 95%, making it too expensive for a family to afford to pass it down to their family.

After exploring inside we walked around the castle boundaries to a beautiful walled garden with various flowers, trees, and a bog garden or swamp garden just outside the walled garden. It is set at a low level with wet plants growing within that area such as tree ferns, Japanese Maple and copper hazel. We walked around the forested area, finding a pasture full of cows and a great view of the mountains. I enjoyed walking around the castle grounds and trying to imagine being a kid and exploring the area. It was such a beautiful day too, making it that much more enjoyable. I really enjoyed this castle not only because it was furnished inside, but because it covered so much ground and felt like a secluded town within a busy town outside the walls.