Gwrych Castle, North Wales - a vast ruin made famous by I'm a celebrity, get me out of here !

My wife comes from North Wales, and we regularly go back to visit. On one of our previous trips we went to Gwrych Castle (pronounced g-wer-ch, with the ch like it is in loch, not in church).

Its actually a modern castle, and more of a stately home built to look like a castle. Building started in 1810, so really young for a castle in the UK. Its quite vast and is spread across a hillside, and is mostly a ruin these days.

The pic above helps to give an idea of how spread out it is, and its quite close to the coast so its position on the hills gives it lovely views out across the Irish Sea in the direction of the Isle of Man (I'm not sure if you can see the Isle from the Castle though - maybe on a very clear day).

We had driven past the castle many times when we used to live in the area and never thought to visit (I'm not sure it was open to visiting then). However, it was used for a few years on I'm a celebrity get me out of here during the covid travel bans, and that really propelled its popularity, and it grew in stature as an attraction.

When we went it was quite mobbed, and I really liked the visit, but I have to be honest and say that it was struggling to cope with the amount of visitors, because its just not quite set up for it, because it is in such a ruined state. However, it was quite cheap, so worth the money.

You walk along a predetermined route around the castle, and the gardens at the start were quite nice. Its hard to tell from the photos, but it was pouring with rain when we were there, and because there are very few covered areas, it was rather wet !

They were trying their best to attract visitors off its TV appearances, and there were a few things you could see, like the shop above, but I was actually quite surprised at how little there was from Celebrity - mostly down to a few info boards and some card board cut-outs of Ant and Dec !

The castle structure is very pretty, and it must have been beautiful in its day. Its decline actually came recently in the the 1990s at the hands of vandals and looters, due to an absent owner, which is a real shame, .

And there is a reference on wikipedia that Lemmy, the bassist and front man from Motorhead once lived at the castle - now thats proper cool - Rock Royalty ! Queen Victoria also stayed there a number of times. But which is cooler ? Lemmy or Queen Victoria - I'll let you decide !

The castle is now owned by a trust, with the aim of operating and preserving it. Hopefully they can raise enough money to stop further ruin, and even renovate it, I just shudder at how much that would really cost - 10s of millions I'd think. However, if you dont try, you dont get - so fair play to them !

It probably comes across as if we didnt enjoy the visit. Thats simply not the case, it just really wasnt what we expected. However, it was fun, we did enjoy it, even though it was bucketing rain, and I'd definitely go again. I'd even encourage them to raise their prices a bit because it was rather cheap to get in, especially if thats going to help them preserve it for the future ! Very worth the visit if you are in the area - and you'll be supporting a good cause !