Castell Coch

Template:Short description Template:Featured article Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox military installation Template:Language with name/for; {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built above the village of Tongwynlais in 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 River Taff. 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 may have been 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 in South Wales.

John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, inherited the castle in 1848. One of Britain's wealthiest men, with interests in architecture and antiquarian studies, he employed the architect William Burges to rebuild the castle, "as a country residence for occasional occupation in the summer", 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. Bute reintroduced commercial viticulture into Britain, planting a vineyard just below the castle, and wine production continued until the First World War. He 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 the High Victorian interiors led the historian David McLees to describe it as "one of the greatest Victorian triumphs of architectural composition".Template:Sfn The exterior, based on 19th-century studies by the antiquarian George Thomas Clark, is relatively authentic in style, although its three stone towers were adapted by Burges to present a dramatic silhouette, closer in design to mainland European castles such as Chillon than native British fortifications. The interiors were elaborately decorated, with specially designed furniture and fittings; the designs include extensive use of symbolism drawing on classical and legendary themes. Joseph Mordaunt Crook wrote that the castle represented "the learned dream world of a great patron and his favourite architect, recreating from a heap of rubble a fairy-tale castle which seems almost to have materialised from the margins of a medieval manuscript".Template:Sfn

The surrounding Castell Coch beech woods contain rare plant species and unusual geological features and are protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

HistoryEdit

11th–14th centuriesEdit

File:Return from market - Castell Coch.jpg

Julius Caesar Ibbetson's 1808 painting of the medieval ruins, based on his 1792 watercolour

The first castle on the Castell Coch site was probably built after 1081, during the Norman invasion of Wales.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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, which leads to the town.Template:Sfn It took the form of a raised, earth-work motte, about Template:Convert across at the base and Template:Convert on the top, protected by the surrounding steep slopes.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The first castle was probably abandoned after 1093 when the Norman lordship of Glamorgan was created, changing the line of the frontier.Template:Sfn

In 1267, Gilbert de Clare, who held the Lordship of Glamorgan, seized the lands around the town of Senghenydd in the north of Glamorgan from their native Welsh ruler.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Caerphilly Castle was built to control the new territory and Castell Coch—strategically located between Cardiff and Caerphilly—was reoccupied.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The north-west section of 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Efn

On Gilbert's death, the castle passed to his widow Joan and around this time it was referred to as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, Latin for "the red castle", probably after the colour of the red sandstone defences.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Gilbert's son, also named Gilbert, inherited the property in 1307.Template:Sfn He died at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, triggering an uprising of the native Welsh in the region.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

15th–19th centuriesEdit

Bute ownershipEdit

File:Burges's intent for Castell Coch, 1874.png

William Burges's plans for the reconstruction, showing the surviving medieval features (bottom) and his intentions for the new building (top)

Castell Coch remained derelict; the antiquarian John Leland, visiting around 1536, described it as "all in ruin, no big thing but high".Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Stone from the castle may have been used to feed the kilns during this period.Template:Sfn 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 of wild garlic.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

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, heiress of Viscount Windsor, adding her estates in South Wales to his inheritance.Template:Sfn 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 expansion of the coal industry in the South Wales valleys, making the Bute family extremely wealthy.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The 2nd Marquess carried out exploration for iron ore at Castell Coch in 1827 and considered establishing an ironworks there.Template:Sfn

The 3rd Marquess of Bute, another John Crichton-Stuart, inherited the castle and the family estates as a child in 1848.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn On his coming of age, Bute's landed estates and industrial inheritance made him one of the wealthiest men in the world.Template:Sfn He had a wide range of interests including archaeology, theology, linguistics and history.Template:Sfn Interest in medieval architecture increased in Britain during the 19th century, and in 1850 the antiquarian George Thomas Clark surveyed Castell Coch and published his findings, the first major scholarly work about the castle.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Nonetheless, Clark considered the external walls "tolerably perfect" and advised that the castle be conserved, complete with the ivy-covered stonework.Template:Sfn

In 1871, Bute asked his chief Cardiff engineer, John McConnochie, to excavate and clear the castle ruins.Template:Sfn Template:Efn The report on the investigations was produced by William Burges, an architect with an interest in medieval architectureTemplate:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn On receipt of the report, Bute commissioned Burges to rebuild Castle Coch in a Gothic Revival style.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

ReconstructionEdit

File:Reconstruction of Castell Coch, 1875.jpg

Reconstruction of the castle in 1875, with a temporary bridge across the ditch (left) and the ruined Well Tower (right)

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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Burges's drawings for the proposed rebuilding survive at the Bute seat of Mount Stuart.Template:Sfn The drawings were supplemented by a large number of wooden and plaster models, from smaller pieces to full-size models of furniture.Template:Sfn Template:Efn

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 a minaret, and some defensive timber hoardings, both of which were not undertaken.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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 castles.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

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Burges's team of craftsmen at Castell Coch included many who had worked with him at Cardiff Castle and elsewhere.Template:Sfn John Chapple, his office manager, designed most of the furnishings and furniture,Template:Sfn and William Frame acted as clerk of works.Template:Sfn Horatio Lonsdale was Burges's chief artist, painting extensive murals at the castle.Template:Sfn His main sculptor was Thomas Nicholls, together with another long-time collaborator, the Italian sculptor Ceccardo Fucigna.Template:Sfn

Stimulated by antiquarian writings about British viticulture, Bute decided to reintroduce commercial grape vines into Britain in 1873.Template:Sfn He sent his gardener Andrew Pettigrew to France for training and planted a Template:Convert vineyard just beneath the castle in 1875.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The first harvests were poor and the initial harvest in 1877 produced only 240 bottles.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn<ref name="WalesOnline" /> By 1887, the output was 3,000 bottles of sweet white wine of reasonable quality.<ref name="WalesOnline"/>Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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.<ref name="WalesOnline"/>Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Burges died in 1881 after catching a severe chill during a site visit to the castle.Template:Sfn Template:Efn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Clark approved of the result, commenting in 1884 that the restoration was in "excellent taste".Template:Sfn An oratory originally built on the roof of the Well Tower was removed before 1891 but in other respects the completed castle was left unaltered.Template:Sfn

The castle was not greatly used; the Marquess rarely visited after its completion.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Efn 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 philosophy of conserving older buildings and monuments.Template:Sfn

20th–21st centuriesEdit

File:Castell Coch (4631).jpg

The courtyard

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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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 vineyards were uprooted.<ref name="WalesOnline"/> John, the 4th Marquess, acquired the castle in 1932 but made little use of it.Template:Sfn He also began to reduce the family's investments in South Wales.Template:Sfn The coal trade had declined after 1918 and industry had suffered during the depression of the 1920s;Template:Sfn Template:Sfn by 1938, the great majority of the family interests, including the coal mines and docks, had been sold off or nationalised.Template:Sfn

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 donation was accepted only with reluctance; in the post-war period Burges's reputation, and that of Victorian architecture more generally, were at their lowest ebb, and the castle was considered a "hideous Victorian joke".Template:Sfn Template:Efn 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,Template:Sfn the National Museum of Wales providing alternatives from their collection for Castell Coch.Template:Sfn Many of the original furnishings, removed in 1950, have been recovered in the later 20th and 21st centuries and returned to their original locations in the castle.Template:Sfn Two stained-glass panels from the demolished chapel, lost since 1901, were rediscovered at an auction in 2010 and were bought by Cadw for £125,000 in 2011.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Academic interest in the property grew, with publications in the 1950s and 1960s exploring its artistic and architectural value.Template:Sfn Since 1984, the property has been administered by Cadw, an agency of the Welsh Government, and is open to the public; it typically receives between 50,000 and 75,000 visits per year; this number dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 23,095 people visited in 2021.Template:Sfn Template:Efn The Drawing Room is available for wedding ceremonies.<ref name=cadw.gov.wales1 />

The castle has been used as a location for films and television programmes, including The Black Knight (1954), Sword of the Valiant (1984), The Worst Witch (1998), Wolf Hall (2015) and several episodes of Doctor Who.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The castle's exposed position causes it to suffer from penetrating damp and periodic restoration has been necessary.Template:Sfn<ref name=CaseStudy /> The stone tiles on the roof were replaced by slate in 1972, a programme of repair 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.Template:Sfn<ref name=CaseStudy/><ref name=cadw.wales.gov.uk2 /><ref name=report /> In 2017 a systematic restoration of the three towers was begun, to secure the exteriors and protect the interiors which had continued to deteriorate due to water ingress. Work on the Keep tower was completed in 2019, a two-year programme to repair the Well tower began in 2024, and Cadw has started planning for a similar restoration of the Kitchen tower.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The castle will remain open to visitors throughout the restoration work.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ArchitectureEdit

OverviewEdit

Castell Coch occupies a stretch of woodland on the slopes above the village of Tongwynlais and the River Taff, about Template:Convert north-west of the centre of Cardiff.<ref name=googlemapsroute />Template:Sfn The architecture is High Victorian Gothic Revival in style, influenced by contemporary 19th-century French restorations.<ref name="Castell Coch, Tongwynlais" /> 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.Template:Sfn John B. Hiling, in his study The Architecture of Wales: From the first to the twenty-first century, suggests that Castell Coch, and Cardiff Castle, are "the most remarkable domestic buildings to be resurrected in the nineteenth century".Template:Sfn Template:Efn The castle is protected under UK law as a Grade I listed building due to its exceptional architectural and historical interest.Template:Sfn<ref name=report/><ref name="Castell Coch, Tongwynlais"/>

ExteriorEdit

File:Diagram of Castell Coch.png

Diagram of the castle in the 21st century:Template:Image key

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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn A ditch is cut out of the rock in front of the Gatehouse and leads to an eastern approach road.Template:Sfn The castle is surrounded by woodland and the 19th-century vineyards below it have been converted into a golf course.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.Template:Sfn

The Gatehouse is reached across a wooden bridge, incorporating a drawbridge.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn The Gatehouse was fitted with a wooden defensive bretèche Template:Efn and, above the entrance, Burges sited a portcullis and a glazed statue of the Madonna and Child sculpted by Ceccardo Fucigna.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The Keep is Template:Convert 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn The Kitchen Tower is also Template:Convert across and rests on a square, spurred base.Template:Sfn It was originally two storeys high and contained the medieval kitchen; Burges raised its height and gave it a conical roof and chimneys.Template:Sfn The walls of these two towers are around Template:Convert thick at the base, thinning to Template:Convert at the top.Template:Sfn The Well Tower at Template:Convert in diameter is slightly narrower than the Keep or Kitchen Tower, with a well in its lowest chamber sunk into the ground.Template:Sfn The Well Tower lacks the spurs of the other two towers 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.Template:Sfn

File:Keep Tower, Castell Coch.jpg

The conical roofs of the Well Tower (left) and Keep (right), topped by elaborate weather vanes and chimneys

The towers contribute to what the architectural writer Charles Handley-Read considered the castle's "sculptural and dramatic exterior".Template:Sfn 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,Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn which Matthew Williams described as bringing "a Wagnerian Template:Not a typo to the Taff Valley".Template:Sfn

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The design of the towers was influenced by the work of the contemporary French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, including his restorations of Carcassonne and the châteaus of Aigle and Chillon.Template:Sfn While the exterior of Castell Coch is relatively true to English 13th-century medieval design—albeit heavily influenced by the Gothic Revival movement—the inclusion of the conical roofs, which more closely resemble those of fortifications in France or Switzerland than of Britain, is historically inaccurate.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

The three towers lead into a small oval courtyard that sits on the top of the motte, about Template:Convert across lengthways.Template:Sfn 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".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Burges reconstructed the shell wall that runs along the north-west side of the courtyard Template:Convert thick, complete with arrow holes and a battlement.Template:Sfn

InteriorEdit

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.Template:Sfn 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."Template:Sfn

The Banqueting HallEdit

File:Castell Coch - Banqueting Room.JPG

The Banqueting Hall

The Banqueting Hall is Template:Convert across with an Template:Convert ceiling, and occupies the whole of the first floor of the Hall Block.Template:Sfn Burges persuaded Bute and the antiquarian George Clark that the medieval hall would have stood on the first floor.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Neither approach was acceptable to Bute and at a late stage, around 1878/79, the present entrance was created by expanding a window at the head of the internal gallery.Template:Sfn

The hall is austere; the architectural historian John Newman critiqued its decoration as "dilute" and "unfocused", Crook as "anaemic".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn It features stencilled ceilings and murals which resemble medieval manuscripts. The murals were designed by Horatio Lonsdale and executed by Campbell, Smith & Company.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The furniture is by John Chapple, made in Lord Bute's workshops at Cardiff.Template:Sfn The tapered chimney of the room, modelled on 15th-century French equivalents, contains a statue carved by Thomas Nicholls.Template:Sfn Although the architectural historian Mark 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 the diocese of Llandaff in nearby Cardiff.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The Drawing RoomEdit

File:Drawing room walls, Castell Coch.jpg

The Drawing Room

The octagonal Drawing Room occupies the first and second floors of the Keep.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The decoration of the room focuses on what Newman described as the "intertwined themes [of] the fecundity of nature and the fragility of life".Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Around the room, 58 panels, each depicting one or more unique plants, are surmounted by a mural showing animals from twenty-four of Aesop's Fables. The plants are wild flowers from the Mediterranean, where Lord Bute spent his winter months each year. Carved birds, lizards and other wildlife decorate the doorways.Template:Sfn

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".Template:Sfn The architectural writer Andrew Lilwall-Smith considered the Drawing Room to be "Burges's {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}", encapsulating his "romantic vision of the Middle Ages".Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

Lord Bute's BedroomEdit

In comparison to other rooms within the castle, Lord Bute's Bedroom, sited above the Winch Room, is relatively small and simple.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn The bedroom contains an ornately carved fireplace.Template:Sfn Doors lead off the room to an internal balcony overlooking the courtyard and to the bretèche over the gate arch.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

This bedroom is also less richly ornamented than many in the castle, making extensive use of plain, stencilled geometrical patterns on the walls.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn The bedroom would have been impractical for regular use, lacking wardrobes and other storage.Template:Sfn

Lady Bute's BedroomEdit

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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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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, with considerable involvement from Bute and his wife.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The room is circular, with the window embrasures forming a sequence of arches around the outside.Template:Sfn It is richly decorated, with love as the theme, displaying carved monkeys, pomegranates and grapevines on the ceiling, and nesting birds topping the pillars.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Lord Bute thought the monkeys inappropriately "lascivious".Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn The washbasin, designed by John Chapple, has a dragon tap, and cisterns for hot and cold water covered with crenellated towers.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Crook described the bed as being "medieval to the point of acute discomfort".Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn The historian Matthew Williams considered that Lonsdale's efforts lack the imagination and flair that Burges himself might have brought to the room.Template:Sfn

Other roomsEdit

The Windlass Room, or Winch Room, is in the Gatehouse, entered from the Drawing Room.Template:Sfn It contains a working mechanism for operating the drawbridge and the portcullis.Template:Sfn The equipment was originally intended for the second floor, which Burges considered the most historically authentic location.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Template:Efn The Windlass Room includes murder holes, which Burges thought would have enabled medieval inhabitants of the castle to pour boiling water and oil on attackers.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

An oratory or chapel, originally fitted to the roof of the Well Tower but removed before 1891, was decorated with twenty stained-glass windows.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Pullan, in a paper read to the annual meeting of the Royal Institute of British Architects on 17 April 1882, just before the first anniversary of Burges's death, included a description of the chapel; "of wooden construction, partly projecting on immense wooden brackets towards the courtyard, and forming a most picturesque object".Template:Sfn Other rooms in the castle include Lady Margaret Bute's Bedroom, the servants' hall and the kitchen.Template:Sfn

Interior design detailsEdit

Interior design details at Castell Coch
Castell Coch - tiled window.jpg

One of the tiled windows embrasures
Castell Coch hedgehog and leaves detailing.jpg

A woodland scene in Lord Bute's Bedroom
Castell Coch - allegorical wallpaper.jpg

Murals in the Drawing Room depicting Aesop's Fables ...
Drawing room ceiling, Castle Coch, Wales..JPG

the room's vaulted ceiling
Castell Coch - Three Fates.jpg

the Three Fates
Castell Coch Room detail (2994248055).jpg

... and more detailed design.
Castell carved birds.jpg

Nesting birds in Lady Bute's Bedroom ...
Castell Coch Ceiling 2 (2994253295).jpg

...the coffered ceiling ...
Castell Coch - detail of Bute bed.jpg

... and the crystal detailing of her bed

Landscape – Site of Special Scientific InterestEdit

File:Castle Coch from A470.jpg

View of the castle and the surrounding beech woodland in December 2012

The woods surrounding the castle, known as the Taff Gorge complex, are among the most westerly natural beech woodlands in the British Isles.<ref name=SiteofSpecialScienticInterest>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They contain dog's mercury, ramsons, sanicles, bird's-nest orchid, greater butterfly-orchid and yellow bird's nest plants.<ref name=SiteofSpecialScienticInterest/> 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.Template:Sfn The area is protected as the Castell Coch Woodlands and Road Section Site of Special Scientific Interest.<ref name=ccgc.gov.uk />

The woods above the castle are accessible to the public and are used for walking, mountain biking and horse riding.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> To the southeast of the castle, a nine-hole golf course occupies the site of the former vineyard.<ref name=welshgolfcourses.com />

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