Chirk Castle
| Chirk Castle Welsh: Castell y Waun | |
|
Denbighshire | |
|---|---|
 Chirk Castle | |
| Type: | Castle and stately home |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SJ268380 |
| Location: | 52°56’4"N, 3°5’26"W |
| Village: | Chirk |
| History | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | National Trust |
| Website: | Chirk Castle |
Chirk Castle stands at Chirk in Denbighshire. It is a thirteenth-century castle, converted into a stately home. It was once the administrative centre for the Marcher Lordship of Chirkland. Today it is owned by the National Trust and is opened to the public in season.
The property is notable for its gardens, with clipped yew hedges, herbaceous borders, rock gardens and terraces and surrounded by 18th-century parkland.
The castle was built in 1295 by Roger Mortimer de Chirk, uncle of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March as part of King Edward I's chain of fortresses across the north of Wales, and it guards the entrance to the Ceiriog Valley.
History
Chirk Castle was built as a military fortification, but later served as a lordly dwelling, commanding the Lordship of Chirkland until the abolition of the march lordships in the sixteenth century under Henry VIII, which integrated Chirkland into Denbighshire.
The castle was bought by Thomas Myddelton in 1595 for £5,000 (approx. £11 million. His son, Thomas Myddelton of Chirk Castle was a Parliamentarian officer during the Civil War, but became a Royalist during the Cheshire Rising of 1659. Following the Restoration, his son became Sir Thomas Myddelton, 1st Baronet of Chirke.
During the 1930s the Castle was home to Thomas Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden, a prominent patron of the arts and champion of Welsh culture. The Myddelton family resided at Chirk Castle until 2004. Lieutenant-Colonel Ririd Myddleton was an extra equerry to Queen Elizabeth II from 1952 until his death in 1988.
Today, the castle belongs to the National Trust.
Location
The castle is just inside Denbighshire, overlooking the boundary with Shropshire, which here is marked by the River Ceiriog. Access is by road; the castle itself is a mile and a half from the Chirk railway station.
Chirk Castle Approach
The castle gates
Main entrance
Courtyard
Garden alongside the castle
Chirk Castle from the North, by Peter Tillemans, 1725
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Chirk Castle) |
- Chirk Castle – National Trust
- Mahler, Margaret (1912), A History of Chirk Castle and Chirkland, London: G. Bell and Sons, http://books.google.com/?id=FM9MAAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage
- Castles of Wales website
- Pictures of Chirk Castle and the area on Geograph.co.uk
