Amroth Castle

Amroth Castle
Pembrokeshire
Amroth Castle
Type:	Mock castle
Location
Grid reference:	SN169072
Location:	51°44’1"N, 4°39’9"W
Village:	Amroth
History
	Built 19th century
Information

Amroth Castle stands to the east of Amroth, in Pembrokeshire, very close to its border with Carmarthenshire.

The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park reaches its eastern end at this boundary and the Pembrokeshire Coast Path finishes by the castle too (though its route is continued into Carmarthenshire as part of the more recent Wales Coast Path).

The castle today is divided into holiday apartments for let and its grounds hold a caravan park.

History

The castle stands off the lane running east from the village. It is surrounded by a high wall with an entrance archway at the south-western corner. The present building is a 19th-century country house built in the style of a mock castle which possibly replaced a small stone castle dating from the 12th century. The gatehouse is also much restored. The house has been Grade I listed.

After passing through several hands the castle was used as a lunatic asylum in the 1850s. Converted back to a private house in the 1880s it was later owned and occupied by Owen Colby Philipps, the shipping magnate who bought the White Star Line and was created Baron Kylsant of Carmarthen and Amroth in 1923. It passed to his daughter Nesta, who had married George Coventry, grandson of the 9th Earl of Coventry. They moved out in 1930 when George inherited the Coventry title and estates.