On part of my mother’s maternal side, I have Welsh ancestry. They came from Caernarvonshire. By the time they settled on a last name (when they came to the US) the name was Jones. Prior to that, the name changed with every generation. Jones was for the son of John. Roberts was the son of Robert. Davies was the son of David. And on from there. This makes tracing one’s ancestry interesting. Even so, I have managed to get into the late 1700s to someone with the last name of Thomas.
Due to my Welsh connection, I have been to Wales many times in the past. It is a beautiful country and I love visiting there. I have also toured some Welsh castles in the past, but they have mostly been in ruins.
Considered to be the ‘finest Tudor House in Wales’, Gwydir Castle is also located in Caernarvonshire. It is on the River Conwy across from the market town of Llanrwst. This is actually one of the easier Welsh words to try to pronounce – “Clanwurst”.
While having tea after the tour of Gwydir (“Gwideer”) I repeated a couple things my grandmother had taught me in Welsh, especially a particular word I used to hear a lot. It was “kirikeg”. The lady of the house, Judy, laughed at that one. It means “shut up”, not a polite “be quiet”. No surprise there. My grandmother was not exactly the cuddly type. She (and my paternal grandmother too), were much more prickly types. Who knows how I ended up being such a hugger.
The oldest part of the castle is thought to date back to sometime around 1500. By the time the current owners (Peter and Judy Welford) purchased the property, several parts of the castle were missing. They were really quite fortunate that anything was left. Judy said during our tour that it was quite a daunting task. I purchased both the guide book (Gwydir Castle: A History and Guide) that Peter wrote and the book (Castles In The Air) that Judy wrote telling the story of the restoration. Both are well-written and quite fascinating.
After giving us an introduction in the Great Court with its adjoining knot garden (populated with some of the 25 peacocks roaming the grounds), Judy took us around to the Great Terrace to the East of the castle. Then we went through Sir John’s Gate. Sir John Wynn was the 1st Baronet of Gwydir and inherited the castle in 1580. One of the dogs was hanging out there, keeping an eye out as dogs do. We passed through the Old Dutch Garden on the North side of the castle to enter through the main entrance into the Lower Hall. This was originally the kitchen, but became the entrance hall fairly early on as the manor house expanded into a castle.
From there we entered the Hall of Justice, which served as a manorial court at the time of the 1st Baronet. The Dining Room was next. The contents of this room (not just furniture, but paneling, fireplace overmantel, chandelier, etcetera) had been sold in 1921 to William Randolph Hearst during an auction of the remaining contents of the house. It was subsequently sold to the Metropolitan Museum of New York and finally tracked down and returned to Gwydir in 1996.
The Solar Hall in the Solar Tower has been used as a parlor for much of its life. From there we had a choice of taking either the medieval turnpike stairs or the Victorian staircase to get up to the First Floor (in the UK, it is Ground Floor, First Floor, and so on). I chose the medieval stairs. Reaching the top, I found myself alone in the Great Chamber. The rest of the group had chosen the Victorian staircase. Plus I could hear questions being asked and answers being given from below, so I decided to move on to the passage and explore that until the rest of the group came upstairs.
There, to the left of a chimney, I found an old Tudor loo. Across the hall was a bedroom furnished in the manner of the mid-1600s. The 2nd Baronet, Sir Richard Wynn, was the Chief Gentleman of the Bedchamber to King Charles I and so this room was furnished for that time period. It is called the Ghost Room. I found it to be somewhat creepy, but not terribly so.
It was the small space between the Ghost Room and another chimney that really creeped me out. I didn’t know why a Priest’s Hole would feel so odd to me. All it contained was a trap door where the Catholic founder of the Wynn family, Meredith Wynn, could hide a priest and/or any specifically Catholic religious objects. In addition to the decidedly spooky feeling that I was not entirely alone, I had also experienced a very unpleasant aroma.
The others were coming up the stairs, so I decided to rejoin the group in the Great Chamber. My favorite part of the Great Chamber was a smaller area with windows on three sides which jutted out over the Great Court with wonderful views of the Knot Garden. Once we had explored the Great Chamber, everyone moved on through the corridor to reach the Hall of Meredith, which was directly above the Lower Hall. This time, the Priest’s Hole didn’t unnerve me so much as I passed. I also didn’t smell anything disturbing. I shrugged and continued on with the rest of the group.
Later, in the guide book, I read about the ghosts at Gwydir Castle. It seems that one of the former owners seduced a serving maid in his youth. Then, when the relationship became complicated, he murdered her in the ghost room and walled her up in one of the chimney breasts. Earlier this century, both the loo and the priest’s hole were discovered during the renovations. The skeletal remains of the dead girl were found in the priest’s hole. So, when I was on my own, did I encounter the serving maid’s ghost?
We spent quite some time in the Hall of Meredith before moving on to the Paneled Parlor. The Hall of Meredith was named after the Wynn family founder, who was descended from Welsh royalty. He managed to father 27 children with three wives and four ‘concubines’. He also had a reputation as quite the warrior. The Hall of Meredith had a really cool arched-braced collar truss ceiling.
After visiting these last two rooms, we headed back downstairs (I took the main staircase this time) to the Lower Hall to enjoy some tea and scones. This was when my Welsh grandmother and the word “kirikeg” came up in the conversation.
Back in the Knot Garden, one of the male peacocks was showing off for one of the females. I got him to show off for me too and got some beautiful photos of him in all of his glory. Then, another male decided to fight it out with him and I needed to quickly jump out of the way before ending up in the middle of the fight. The original male was defeated by the interloper and ended up going up onto the garden wall to sulk. The newcomer then showed his fine plumage to three female peacocks and me. As another male strode over towards us, I decided to move elsewhere so as not to possibly end up in the middle of another territorial ruckus.
Before heading back to the ship, we took a drive through Snowdonia National Park. It really is a gorgeous place with loads of mountains. We also went through the town of Betwys y Coed. It is a place I have been to on four or five of my other trips to Wales. We didn’t stop this time, however. A shame really as I had learned on other visits some great places for wine, cheese, meat pies, and pastries.
Our final destination on our way back to the ship was to the town with the longest name in Wales. This was Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Do not ask me how to pronounce it. I do know that both Welsh actor Michael Sheen and Scottish actor David Tennant can say it correctly as they memorably demonstrated on the Graham Norton show one of the times that they appeared on that British chat show together.
Back at the ship I attended Russell Lee’s discourse on “The Story of the Beatles in Four Songs” after the port talk on the next day’s visit to Liverpool. Sherry and Christine joined me for both and the wait staff brought me “the usual”. Then we went to dinner.
Next time – Liverpool: The home of the Beatles.
