Castell Coch

Castell Coch (Welsh pronunciation:[ˈkastɛɬ koːχ]; Welsh for Red Castle)

Castell Coch
is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built above the village of
Tongwynlais in South Wales. The first castle on the site was built by
Tongwynlais, Cardiff, Wales
the Normans after 1081, to protect the newly conquered town of
Cardiff and control the route along the Taff Gorge. Abandoned shortly
afterwards, the castle's earth motte was reused by Gilbert de Clare as
the basis for a new stone fortification, which he built between 1267
and 1277 to control his freshly annexed Welsh lands. This castle was
likely destroyed in the native Welsh rebellion of 1314. In 1760, the
castle ruins were acquired byJohn Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, as part of a
marriage settlement that brought the family vast estates in South
Wales.

John Crichton-Stuart, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, inherited the castle in

1848. One of Britain's wealthiest men, with interests in architecture The main entrance to Castell Coch
and antiquarian studies, he employed the architect William Burges to
reconstruct the castle, "as a country residence for occasional
occupation in the summer", using the medieval remains as a basis for Castell Coch
the design. Burges rebuilt the outside of the castle between 1875 and
1879, before turning to the interior; he died in 1881 and the work was
finished by Burges's remaining team in 1891. Bute reintroduced
commercial viticulture into Britain, planting a vineyard just below the
castle, and wine production continued until the First World War. The
Marquess made little use of his new retreat and in 1950 his grandson,
the 5th Marquess of Bute, placed it into the care of the state. It is now
controlled by the Welsh heritage agency Cadw.

Castell Coch's external features and theHigh Victorian interiors led the
historian David McLees to describe it as "one of the greatest Victorian
triumphs of architectural composition."[1] The exterior, based on 19th-
century studies by the antiquarian George Clark, is relatively authentic Coordinates 51.5354°N 3.2536°W
in style, although its three stone towers were adapted by Burges to Type Gothic revival
present a dramatic silhouette, closer in design to mainland European
Site information
castles such as Chillon than native British fortifications. The interiors
were elaborately decorated, with specially designed furniture and Controlled by Cadw
fittings; the designs include extensive use of symbolism drawing on Condition Intact
classical and legendary themes. Joseph Mordaunt Crook wrote that the Site history
castle represented "the learned dream world of a great patron and his
Built Original castle 11th–13th
favourite architect, recreating from a heap of rubble a fairy-tale castle
centuries
which seems almost to have materialised from the margins of a
Rebuilt 1875–91
medieval manuscript."[2]
Built by John Crichton-Stuart
The surrounding beech woods contain rare plant species and unusual William Burges
geological features and are protected as a Site of Special Scientific
In use Open to public
Interest.
Materials Red sandstone rubble, grey
 limestone and Pennant
sandstone
Contents Events Native Welsh rebellion of 1314
History
11th–14th centuries Listed Building – Grade I
15th–19th centuries
Bute ownership
Reconstruction
20th–21st centuries
Architecture
Overview
Exterior
Interior
The Banqueting Hall
The Drawing Room
Lord Bute's Bedroom
Lady Bute's Bedroom
Other rooms
Interior design details
Landscape – Site of Special Scientific Interest
See also
Notes
References
Sources
External links

History

11th–14th centuries
The first castle on the Castell Coch site was probably built after 1081, during the
Norman invasion of Wales.[3][4] It formed one of a string of eight fortifications
intended to defend the newly conquered town of Cardiff and control the route along
the Taff Gorge.[4] It took the form of a raised, earth-work motte, about 35 metres
(115 ft) across at the base and 25 metres (82 ft) on the top, protected by the
surrounding steep slopes.[5] The 16th-century historian Rice Merrick claimed that
the castle was built by the Welsh lord Ifor ap Meurig, but there are no records of this
phase of the castle's history and modern historians doubt this account.[6][7] The first
castle was probably abandoned after 1093 when the Norman lordship of Glamorgan
was created, changing the line of the frontier.[4] Julius Caesar Ibbetson's 1808
painting of the medieval ruins, based
In 1267, Gilbert de Clare, who held the Lordship of Glamorgan, seized the lands on his 1792 watercolour
around the town of Senghenydd in the north of Glamorgan from their native Welsh
ruler.[4][3][8] Caerphilly Castle was built to control the new territory and Castell
Coch—strategically located between Cardiff and Caerphilly—was reoccupied.[4][8] A new castle was built in stone around the motte,
, a gatehouse and a square hall above an undercroft.[3][9] The north-west section of
comprising a shell-wall, a projecting circular tower
the walls was protected by a talus and the sides of the motte were scarped to increase their angle, all producing a small but powerful
fortification.[4] Further work followed between 1268 and 1277, which added two large towers, a turning-bridge for the gatehouse and
further protection to the north-west walls.[10][a]
On Gilbert's death, the castle passed to his widowJoan and around this time it was referred to asCastrum Rubeum, Latin for "the Red
Castle", probably after the colour of the sandstone defences.[12][13] Gilbert's son, also named Gilbert, inherited the property in
1307.[14] He died at the Battle of Bannockburnin 1314, triggering an uprising of the native Welsh in the region.[14] Castell Coch was
probably destroyed by the rebels in July 1314, and possibly slighted to put it beyond any further use; it was not rebuilt and the site
was abandoned.[14][15]

15th–19th centuries

Bute ownership
Castell Coch remained derelict; the antiquarian John Leland, visiting around
1536, described it as "all in ruin, no big thing but high".[14] The artist and
illustrator Julius Caesar Ibbetson painted the castle in 1792, depicting substantial
remains and a prominent tower, with a lime kiln in operation alongside the
fortification.[16][17] Stone from the castle may have been robbed and used to
feed the kilns during this period.[18] A similar view was sketched by an
unknown artist in the early 19th century, showing more trees around the ruins; a
few years later, Robert Drane recommended the site as a place for picnics and
noted its abundance in wildgarlic.[17][19][20]

The ruins were acquired by the Earls of Bute in 1760, when John Stuart, the 3rd
Earl and, from 1794, the 1st Marquess, married Lady Charlotte Windsor, adding
her estates in South Wales to his inheritance.[21] John's grandson, John Crichton-
Stuart, developed the Cardiff Docks in the first half of the 19th century; although
the docks were not especially profitable, they opened opportunities for the William Burges's plans for the
expansion of the coal industry in the South Wales valleys, making the Bute reconstruction, showing the surviving
family extremely wealthy.[21][22] The 2nd Marquess carried out exploration for medieval features (bottom) and his
intentions for the new building (top)
iron ore at Castell Coch in 1827 and considered establishing an ironworks
there.[23]

The 3rd Marquess of Bute, another John Crichton-Stuart, inherited the castle and the family estates as a child in 1848.[24][25] On his
coming of age, Bute's landed estates and industrial inheritance made him one of the wealthiest men in the world.[26] He had a wide
range of interests including archaeology, theology, linguistics and history.[26] Interest in medieval architecture increased in Britain
during the 19th century, and in 1850 the antiquarian George Clark surveyed Castell Coch and published his findings, the first major
scholarly work about the castle.[17] The ruins were covered in rubble, ivy, brushwood and weeds; the keep had been largely destroyed
and the gatehouse was so covered with debris that Clark failed to discover it.[17][27] Nonetheless, Clark considered the external walls
[28]
"tolerably perfect" and advised that the castle be conserved, complete with the ivy-covered stonework.

In 1871, Bute asked his chief Cardiff engineer, John McConnochie, to excavate and clear the castle ruins.[29][b] The report on the
investigations was produced by William Burges, an architect with an interest in medieval architecture[29] who had met Bute in 1865.
The Marquess subsequently employed him to redevelop Cardiff Castle in the late 1860s, and the two men became close
collaborators.[30][31] Burges's lavishly illustrated report, which drew extensively on Clark's earlier work, laid out two options: either
conserve the ruins or rebuild the castle to create a house for occasional occupation in the summer.[32][33][34][35] On receipt of the
report, Bute commissioned Burges to rebuild Castle Coch in a Gothic Revival style.[32][33]

Reconstruction
The reconstruction of Castell Coch was delayed until 1875, because of the demands of work at Cardiff Castle and an unfounded
concern by the Marquess's trustees that he was facing bankruptcy.[36] On commencement, the Kitchen Tower, Hall Block and shell
wall were rebuilt first, followed by the Well Tower and the Gatehouse, and the Keep Tower last.[37][33] Burges's drawings for the

[34]
 proposed rebuilding survive at the Bute seat of Mount Stuart.[34] The drawings were
supplemented by a large number of wooden and plaster models, from smaller pieces
to full-size models of furniture.[38][c]

The bulk of the external work was complete by the end of 1879. The result closely
followed Burges's original plans, with the exception of an additional watch tower
intended to resemble aminaret, and some defensive timber hoardings, both of which
were not undertaken.[33][37][39] Clark continued to advise Burges on historical
aspects of the reconstruction and the architect tested the details of proposed features,
such as the drawbridge and portcullis, against surviving designs at other British
Reconstruction of the castle in 1875,
castles.[40][41]
with a temporary bridge across the
ditch (left) and the ruined Well Tower
(right) "This concludes the survey of the ruins and my
conjectural restoration. As for the latter I must
claim your indulgence; for the knowledge of the
Burges's team of craftsmen at Castell Coch included many who had
military architecture of the Middle Ages is a long
worked with him at Cardiff Castle and elsewhere.[43] John Chapple, his way from being as advanced as the knowledge of
office manager, designed most of the furnishings and furniture,[43] and either domestic or ecclesiastical architecture. It is
William Frame acted as clerk of works.[43] Horatio Lonsdale was true that Viollet le Duc and Mr. G.T. Clark have
taught us a great deal, but we are still very far
Burges's chief artist, painting extensive murals at the castle.[43] His
behind hand and the restoration I have attempted
main sculptor was Thomas Nicholls, together with another long-time will I hope be judged according to the measure of
collaborator, the Italian sculptor Ceccardo Fucigna.[43] what is known or ought to be known".
—Extract from the report of William Burges on
Stimulated by antiquarian writings about British viticulture, Bute
Castell Coch.[42]
decided to reintroduce commercial grape vines into Britain in 1873.[44]
He sent his gardener Andrew Pettigrew to France for training and
planted a 1.2-hectare (3-acre) vineyard just beneath the castle in
1875.[44][45] The first harvests were poor and the initial harvest in 1877 produced only 240 bottles.[46][47] Punch magazine claimed
that any wine produced would be so unpleasant that "it would take four men to drink it—two to hold the victim and one to pour the
wine down his throat".[45][47][48] By 1887, the output was 3,000 bottles of sweet white wine of reasonable quality.[48][49][50] Bute
persevered, commercial success followed and 40 hogsheads of wine, including a red varietal using Gamay grapes, were produced
annually by 1894 to positive reviews.[48][49][50][51]

Burges died in 1881 after catching a severechill during a site visit to the castle.[52][d] His brother-in-law, the architect Richard Pullan,
took over the commission and delegated most of the work to Frame, who directed the work on the interior until its completion in
1891.[1][52] Bute and his wife Gwendolen were consulted over the details of the interior decoration; replica family portraits based on
those at Cardiff were commissioned to hang on the walls.[54][55] Clark approved of the result, commenting in 1884 that the
restoration was in "excellent taste".[56] An oratory originally built on the roof of the Well Tower was removed before 1891 but in
[57]
other respects the completed castle was left unaltered.

The castle was not greatly used; the Marquess rarely visited after its completion.[1] The property had probably only been intended for
limited, informal use, for example as a retreat following picnics. Although it had reception rooms suitable for large gatherings, it had
only three bedrooms and was too far from Cardiff for casual visits.[58][36][e] The restored castle initially received little interest from
the architectural community, possibly because the total rebuilding of the castle ran counter to the increasingly popular late-Victorian
[60]
philosophy of conserving older buildings and monuments.

20th–21st centuries
Bute died in 1900 and his widow, the Marchioness, was given a life interest in Castell Coch; during her mourning, she and her
daughter, Lady Margaret Crichton-Stuart, occupied the castle and made occasional visits thereafter.[1][61] Production in the castle
vineyards ceased during the First World War due to the shortages of the sugar needed for the fermentation process, and in 1920 the

[48]
vineyards were uprooted.[48] John, the 4th Marquess, acquired the castle in 1932 but made
little use of it.[58] He also began to reduce the family's investments in South Wales.[62] The
coal trade had declined after 1918 and industry had suffered during the depression of the
1920s;[63][64] by 1938, the great majority of the family interests, including the coal mines and
docks, had been sold off or nationalised.[62]

The 5th Marquess of Bute, another John, succeeded in 1947 and, in 1950, he placed the castle
in the care of the Ministry of Works. The Marquess also disposed of Cardiff Castle, which he
gave to the city, removing the family portraits from the castle before doing so. In turn, the
paintings in Castell Coch were removed by the ministry and sent to Cardiff,[55] the National
Museum of Wales providing alternatives from their collection for Castell Coch.[55] Academic
interest in the property grew, with publications in the 1950s and 1960s exploring its artistic
and architectural value.[65] Since 1984, the property has been administered by Cadw, an The courtyard
agency of the Welsh Government, and is open to the public; it received 69,466 visitors in
2011.[66] The castle has also been used as a location for filming.
[67]

The castle's exposed position causes it to suffer from penetrating damp and periodic restoration work has been necessary.[54][68] The
stone tiles on the roof were replaced by slate in 1972, a major programme was carried out on the Keep in 2007 and interior
conservation work was undertaken in 2011 to address problems in Lady Bute's Bedroom, where damp had begun to damage the
finishings.[54][68][69][70]

The original furnishings, many of which the Marquess removed in 1950, have mostly been recovered and returned to their original
locations in the castle.[1] Two stained-glass panels from the demolished chapel, lost since 1901, were rediscovered at an auction in
1.[71]
2010 and were bought by Cadw for £125,000 in 201

Architecture

Overview
Castell Coch occupies a stretch of woodland on the slopes above the village of
Tongwynlais and the River Taff, about 10.6 kilometres
(6.6 mi) north-west of the centre of Cardiff.[72][73] The architecture is High Victorian Gothic Revival in style, influenced by
contemporary 19th-century French restorations.[74] Its design combines the surviving elements of the medieval castle with 19th-
century additions to produce a building which the historian Charles Kightly considered "the crowning glory of the Gothic Revival" in
Britain. It is protected under UK law as a Grade I listed building due to its exceptional architectural and historical
interest.[30][70][74][75]

Exterior
The castle comprises three circular towers—the Keep, the Kitchen Tower and the Well Tower—along with the Hall Block, the
Gatehouse and a shell wall; the buildings almost entirely encase the original motte in stone.[76] The older parts of the castle are
constructed from crudely laid red sandstone rubble and grey limestone, the 19th-century additions in more precisely cut red Pennant
sandstone.[33][77] A ditch is cut out of the rock in front of the Gatehouse and leads to an eastern approach road.[78] The castle is
surrounded by woodland and the 19th-century vineyards below it have been converted into a golf course.[46] In 1850, George Clark
recorded an "outer court" of which nothing remains; this may, in fact, have been the traces of the earlier lime kiln operations around
the site.[79]

The Gatehouse is reached across a wooden bridge, incorporating a drawbridge.[80] Burges intended the bridge to copy those of
medieval castles, which he believed were designed to be easily set on fire in the event of attack.[80] The Gatehouse was fitted with a
wooden defensive bretache[f] and, above the entrance, Burges sited a portcullis and a glazed statue of theMadonna and Child sculpted
by Ceccardo Fucigna.[43][80]
The Keep is 12 metres (39 ft) in diameter with a square, spurred
base; in the 13th century there would have been an adjacent turret,
on the south-west side, containing latrines, but few traces
remain.[81] There is no evidence that the tower that Burges termed
a keep would have fulfilled this function in the medieval period
and he appears to have chosen the name because of his initial
decision to locate the bedrooms of Lord and Lady Bute in the
rebuilt tower.[81] The Kitchen Tower is also 12 metres (39 ft)
across and rests on a square, spurred base.[82] It was originally two
storeys high and contained the medieval kitchen; Burgess raised its
height and gave it a conical roof and chimneys.[82] The walls of
these two towers are around 3.0 metres (10 ft) thick at the base,
thinning to 0.61 metres (2 ft) at the top.[80] The Well Tower at 11.5
metres (38 ft) in diameter is slightly narrower than the Keep or
Diagram of the castle in the 21st century; A– Kitchen
Kitchen Tower, with a well in its lowest chamber sunk into the Tower; B – Courtyard; C – Hall Block; D – Well
ground.[83] The Well Tower lacks the spurs of the other two towers Tower; E – Gatehouse; F – Keep
and has a flat rather than curved back, facing onto the courtyard,
similar to some of the towers built at Caerphilly by the de
Clares.[84]

The towers contribute to what the architectural writer Charles Handley-Read

considered the castle's "sculptural and dramatic exterior".[85] Almost equal in
diameter, but of differing conical roof designs and heights, and topped with copper-
gilt weather vanes, they combine to produce a romantic appearance,[3][78][86] which
Matthew Williams described as bringing "a Wagnerian flavor to the Taff Valley".[87]

"As nearly every Castle in the country has been

ruined for more than two centuries ...it is not
surprising that no examples are to be found. But
The conical roofs of the Well Tower
we may form a very fair idea of the case if we
(left) and Keep (right), topped by consult contemporary [manuscripts] and if we do
elaborate weather vanes and we find nearly an equal number of towers with
chimneys flat roofs as those with pointed roofs. The case
appears to me to be thus: if a tower presented a
good situation for military engines, it had a flat
The design of the towers was influenced by the work of the top; if the contrary, it had a high roof to guarantee
contemporary French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, including his the defenders from the rain and the lighter sorts of
restorations of Carcassone and the châteaus of Aigle and Chillon.[31] missiles".
While the exterior of Castell Coch is relatively true to English 13th- —Burges defending his decision to feature conical
century medieval design—albeit heavily influenced by the Gothic roofs in the light of doubtful historical evidence.[88]
Revival movement—the inclusion of the conical roofs, which more
closely resemble those of fortifications in France or Switzerland than
Britain, is historically inaccurate.[31][75][88][89] Although he mounted a historical defence (see box), Burges chose the roofs mainly
for architectural effect, arguing that they appeared "more picturesque", and to provide additional room for accommodation in the
castle.[88]

The three towers lead into a small oval courtyard that sits on the top of the motte, about 19.5 metres (64 ft) across lengthways.[82]
Cantilevered galleries and wall-walks run around the inside of the courtyard with neat and orderly woodwork; the historian Peter
Floud critiqued it as "perhaps too much like the backcloth for an historical pageant".[86][90] Burges reconstructed the shell wall that
[58]
runs along the north-west side of the courtyard 0.99 metres (3 ft 3 in) thick, complete with arrow holes and a battlement.
Interior
The Keep, the Well Tower and the Kitchen Tower incorporate a series of apartments, of which the main sequence, the Castellan's
Rooms, lies within the Keep. The Hall, the Drawing Room, Lord Bute's Bedroom and Lady Bute's Bedroom form a suite of rooms
that exemplify the High Victorian Gothic style of 19th century Britain. Unlike the exterior of the castle, which deliberately imitated
the architecture of the 13th century, the interior was purely High Victorian in style.[37] On Burges's decoration of Cardiff Castle and
Castell Coch, Handley-Read wrote: "I have yet to see any High Victorian interiors from the hand, very largely, of one designer, to
equal either in homogeneity or completeness, in quality of execution or originality of conception the best of the interiors of the Welsh
castles. For sheer power of intoxication, Burges stand[s] unrivalled."[91]

The Banqueting Hall

The Banqueting Hall is 6.1 by 9.1 metres (20 by 30 ft) across with an 11-metre
(35 ft) ceiling, and occupies the whole of the first floor of the Hall Block.[92] Burges
persuaded Bute and the antiquarian George Clark that the medieval hall would have
stood on the first floor.[40] His original plan saw access via one of two equally
circuitous routes through the Well Tower or around the entire internal gallery to
enter the hall through a passage next to the Drawing Room.[40] Neither approach
was acceptable to Bute and at a late stage, around 1878/9, the present entrance was
.[40]
created by expanding a window at the head of the internal gallery

The Banqueting Hall

The hall is austere; the architectural historian John Newman critiqued its decoration
as "dilute" and "unfocused", Crook as "anaemic".[93][94] It features stencilled
ceilings and murals which resemble medieval manuscripts. The murals were designed by Horatio Lonsdale and executed by
Campbell, Smith & Company.[95][94] The furniture is by John Chapple, made in Lord Bute's workshops at Cardiff.[94] The tapered
chimney of the room, modelled on 15th-century French equivalents, contains a statue carved by Thomas Nicholls.[95] Although the
architectural historianMark Girouard suggested that the statue depicts the Hebrew King David, most historians believe that it shows
Lucius of Britain, according to legend the founder of thediocese of Llandaff in nearby Cardiff.[86][92][95]

The Drawing Room

The octagonal Drawing Room occupies the first and second floors of the Keep.[55]
The ceiling is supported by vaulted stone ribs modelled on Viollet-Le-Duc's work at
Château de Coucy and the lower and upper halves of the room are divided by a
minstrels' gallery.[96][97] The original plans for the space involved two chambers,
one on each floor, and the new design was adopted only in 1879, Burges noting at
the time that he intended to "indulge in a little more ornament" than elsewhere in the
castle.[98][99]

The decoration of the room focuses on what Newman described as the "intertwined
The Drawing Room
themes [of] the fecundity of nature and the fragility of life".[55][100] A fireplace by
Thomas Nicholls features the Three Fates, the trio of Greek goddesses who are
depicted spinning, measuring and cutting the thread of life.[86][101] The ceiling's vaulting is carved with butterflies, reaching up to a
golden sunburst at the apex of the room, while plumed birds fly up into a starry sky in the intervening sections.[96][102] Around the
room, 58 panels, each depicting a unique plant, are surmounted by a mural showing animals from Aesop's Fables. Carved birds,
lizards and other wildlife decorate the doorways.[102]

The historian Terry Measham wrote that the Drawing Room and Lady Bute's Bedroom, "so powerful in their effect, are the two most
important interiors in the castle."[103] The architectural writer Andrew Lilwall-Smith considered the Drawing Room to be "Burges's
pièce de résistance", encapsulating his "romantic vision of the Middle Ages".[86] The decoration of the ceiling, which was carried out
while Burges was alive, differs in tone from the treatment of the murals, and the decoration of Lady Bute's Bedroom, which were
both completed, under the direction of William Frame and Horatio Lonsdale respectively, after Burges's death.[101][104] Burges's
work is distinctively High Gothic in style, while the later efforts are more influenced by the softer colours and character of the
Aesthetic movement, which had grown in popularity by the 1880s.[52][101]

Lord Bute's Bedroom

In comparison to other rooms within the castle, Lord Bute's Bedroom, sited above the Winch Room, is relatively small and
simple.[105] The original plan had Bute's personal accommodation in the Keep but the expansion of the Drawing Room to a double-
height room in 1879 required a late change of plan.[97] The bedroom contains an ornately carved fireplace.[106] Doors lead off the
room to an internal balcony overlooking the courtyard and to the bretache over the gate arch.[105] The furniture is mainly by Chapple
and post-dates Burges, although the washstand and dressing table are pared-down versions of two pieces – the Narcissus Washstand
and the Crocker Dressing Table – that Burges made for his own home in London,The Tower House.[107]

This bedroom is also less richly ornamented than many in the castle, making extensive use of plain, stencilled geometrical patterns on
the walls.[108] Crook suggested this provided some "spartan" relief before the culmination of the castle in Lady Bute's Bedroom but
Floud considered the result "thin" and drab in comparison with the more richly decorated chambers.[108][109] The bedroom would
[110]
have been impractical for regular use, lacking wardrobes and other storage.

Lady Bute's Bedroom

Lady Bute's Bedroom comprises the upper two floors of the Keep, with a coffered,
double-dome ceiling that rises up into the tower's conical roof.[111] The room was
completed after Burges's death and, although he had created an outline model for the
room's structure, which survives, he did not undertake detailed plans for its
decoration.[104][109][111][c] His team attempted to fulfil his vision for the room
—"would Mr Burges have done it?" William Frame asked Nicholls in a letter of
1887—but the interior decoration was the work of Lonsdale between 1887 and 1888,
[104][109]
with considerable involvement from Bute and his wife.

Lady Bute's Bedroom

The room is circular, with the window embrasures forming a sequence of arches
around the outside.[109] It is richly decorated, with love as the theme, displaying
carved monkeys, nesting birds and pomegranates, images taken from 15th-century manuscripts.[109][111] Lord Bute thought the
monkeys inappropriately "lascivious".[109] Above the fireplace is a winged statue of Psyche, the Greek goddess of the soul, carrying
a heart-shaped shield which displays the arms of the Bute family.[86] The washbasin, designed by John Chapple, has cisterns for hot
and cold water, covered with crenellated towers.[109] The Marchioness's scarlet and gold bed is the most notable piece of furniture in
the room, modelled on a medieval original drawn by Viollet-le-Duc.[113][109] Crook described the bed as being "medieval to the
point of acute discomfort".[109]

The bedroom is Moorish in style, a popular inspiration in mid-Victorian interior design, and echoes earlier work by Burges in the
Arab Room at Cardiff Castle and in the chancel at St Mary's Church at Studley Royal in Yorkshire.[111][113] Lilwall-Smith likened
the chamber, with its "Moorish-looking dome, maroon-and-gold painted furniture and large, low bed decorated with glass crystal
orbs", to a scene from the Arabian Nights.[86] Peter Floud criticised the eclectic nature of this Moorish theme and contrasted it
unfavourably with the more consistent style Burges applied to the Arab Room, suggesting that it gave the bedroom an overly
theatrical, even pantomime-like, character.[114] The historian Matthew Williams considered that Lonsdale's efforts lack the
imagination and flair that Burges himself might have brought to the room.[52]

Other rooms
The Windlass Room, or Winch Room, is in the Gatehouse, entered from the Drawing Room.[102] It contains a working mechanism
for operating the drawbridge and the portcullis.[115] The equipment was originally intended for the second floor, which Burges
considered the most historically authentic location.[116] When later design modifications led him to move Lord Bute's Bedroom into
that space, the equipment was simplified and placed on the first floor.[116] The Windlass Room includes murder holes, which Burges
thought would have enabled medieval inhabitants of the castle to pourboiling water and oil on attackers.[108][115]

An oratory, originally fitted to the roof of the Well Tower but removed before 1891, was decorated with twenty stained glass
windows.[57][117] Ten of these windows are displayed at Cardiff Castle, while the other ten are displayed on site; two missing
windows having been returned to the castle in 2011.[71] Other rooms in the castle include Lady Margaret Bute's Bedroom, the
servants' hall and the kitchen.[118]

Interior design details

Interior design details at Castell Coch

One of the A woodland scene in Lord Bute's Bedroom

tiled windows
embrasures

Murals in the Drawing Room depicting Aesop's the room's vaulted

Fables ... ceiling ...
 ... and the Three Fates. Nesting birds in ...the coffered ceiling ...
Lady Bute's
Bedroom ...

... and the crystal

detailing of her bed

Landscape – Site of Special Scientific Interest

The woods surrounding the castle, known as the Taff Gorge
complex, are among the most westerly natural beech woodlands in
the British Isles.[119] They contain dog's mercury, ransoms,
sanicles, bird's-nest orchid, greater butterfly-orchid and yellow
bird's nest plants.[119] The area has unusual rock outcrops, which
show the point where Devonian Old Red Sandstone and
Carboniferous Limestone beds meet; the Castell Coch Quarry is in
the vicinity.[120] To the southeast of the castle, a nine-hole golf
course occupies the site of the former vineyard.[121] The area is
protected as the Castell Coch Woodlands and Road Section Site of
Special Scientific Interest.[122] View of the castle and the surrounding beech
woodland in December 2012

See also
Grade I listed buildings in Cardiff
Castle Drogo, an Edwardian imitation castle in England
Guédelon Castle, a project to build an authentic recreation of a 13th-century castle

Notes
a. The historian David McLees, writing prior to the publication of the Royal Commission's survey on Castell Coch,
suggested that the evidence for the chronology of the medieval castle was "inconclusive", but argued that the shell
walls and stone apron might have been built in the mid-12th century , with the first round tower possibly built by the
de Clares in the early to mid-13th century. The Royal Commission's survey noted that the comprehensive inventories
of the de Clare possessions in 1263, and the lists of payments to their castle garrisons in the same year, make no
[4][11]
reference to any castle at the site, and found no evidence for an earlier dating.
 b. John McConnochie is also called James McConnochie in some sources.
c. The model of Lady Bute's Bedroom was photographed for an article by W . Howell in 1951 but then vanished,
presumed destroyed. It was rediscovered at the Bute property ofDumfries House, Ayrshire, in 2002. The other
models were stored at Cardiff Castle, in the Model Room of the Black Tower but were probably destroyed in the late
1940s.[112]
d. For much of the 19th century, "a chill" was used as a diagnosis for illness involving afever and associated chills, in
contrast to modern medical approaches which would regard a fever and chills as symptoms of an underlying
disease.[53]
e. For comparison, on the other side of theSevern Estuary, Dunster Castle, a motte and shell-keep medieval castle,
was being remodelled by the architectAnthony Salvin at around this time, specifically to enable the property to meet
[59]
late 19th-century standards of facilities and accommodation.
f. A bretache is a defensive structure overhanging a castle wall. Commonly of timber
, it allowed defenders to drop
damaging objects onto attackers below. A similar bretache, since removed, was constructed by Burges on the walls
at Cardiff Castle.

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External links
cadw.wales.gov.uk – Cadw information page

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