Great Castle House

Castle House was designed to be the finest house in town and it succeeded. It could be said that it still holds the title after over 300 years.

Built by the first Duke of Beaufort, by using much of the nearby castle stone, it celebrates his standing as Lord President of the Council of Wales and the Marches.

It was never a family home for the Beauforts, merely a townhouse, and not even their only one. In fact the Duke hardly used it because he built another amazing local house, Troy House, just a decade later. They were ridiculously wealthy and the main reason the house was built here was to show off. It’s situated right next to the castle and overlooking the town and the people that the Duke presided over.

Built in 1673 it is a fine example of what is called restoration design. Grade I Listing tells you how important Cadw feel that the building is. It has good proportions but it’s the plasterwork inside that steels the show.

The first floor room is now presented as one but the ceilings tell a different story - there were five rooms in this space at one time.

Some of the plasterwork is fairly common seventeenth century fare, but where was once the Duke’s sanctum, they really went to town. This must be one of the finest seventeenth century ceilings in Wales where the plaster hangs down in festoons which are created from plastered leather. It’s ostentatiously impressive.