Castell Coch

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 the Normans after 1081, to protect the newly conquered town of Cardiff and control the route along the Taff Gorge. 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. This castle was likely destroyed in the native Welsh rebellion of 1314. In 1760, the castle ruins were acquired by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, as part of a marriage settlement that brought the family vast estates. John Crichton-Stuart, the 3rd

About Castell Coch in brief

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 the Normans after 1081, to protect the newly conquered town of Cardiff and control the route along the Taff Gorge. 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. This castle was likely destroyed in the native Welsh rebellion of 1314. In 1760, the castle ruins were acquired by John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, as part of a marriage settlement that brought the family vast estates. John Crichton-Stuart, the 3rd Marquess of Buto, inherited the castle in 1848. He employed the architect William Burges to reconstruct the castle, using the medieval remains as a basis for 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. The interiors were elaborately decorated, with specially designed furniture and fittings; the designs include extensive use of symbolism drawing on classical and legendary themes. The surrounding beech woods contain rare plant species and unusual geological features and are protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Castell Coch’s external features and the High Victorian interiors led the historian David McLees to describe it as ‘one of the greatest Victorian triumphs of architectural composition.’ It is now controlled by the Welsh heritage agency Cadw.

It is located between Cardiff and Caerphilly—strategically located between the two Welsh cities. It was probably abandoned after 1093 when the Norman lordship of Glamorgan was created, changing the line of the frontier. A new castle was built in stone around the motte, comprising a shell-wall, a projecting circular tower, a gatehouse and a square hall above an undercroft. The north-west section of the walls was protected by talus and scarped to increase their angle, all producing a small but powerful fortification. On Gilbert’s death in 1307, the property was put to slight use by his widow Joan and around this time it was referred to as Castrum Rubeum, Latin for the Red Castle after the colour of the sandstone defences of the region. 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. He died at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, possibly to put the region to slight to slight and possibly to trigger an uprising of the native Wales. In 1307 Gilbert’s son also inherited the property and named the property after the red colour of his father’s name, Gilbert Rube, also named Red Castle. He later died at 1307 at the age of 1307.

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