Gwydir Castle

There have been fortifications associated with this site since AD 600. In the Early Middle Ages, numerous skirmishes were fought in the area between the post-Roman kingdoms of Wales. Two significant encounters were in AD 610, when Llywarch Hen, a bardic prince of Rheged, fought a bloody battle nearby and later when the Kingdoms of Gwynedd and Deheubarth fought a major battle near Llanrwst in AD 954.

By the 14th century, the Welsh knight Hywel Coetmor (d.1440), whose family had fought in the Hundred Years' War as commanders of longbowmen under Edward, the Black Prince at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, is recorded as the first owner of a manor house on the site. He would later fight in the Battle of Shrewsbury (1402) and Agincourt (1415) before going on to support the rising led by Owain Glyndŵr. By the 16th century, Gwydir had become the seat of the powerful Wynn family who were descendants of the Kings of Gwynedd.

In 1921, the panelled main dining room from the 1640s was stripped, the carved and gilded panelling being bought at auction by William Randolph Hearst, the American press baron. On his death, the panels were inherited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and until recently were kept in storage at the museum. The new owners of Gwydir, Peter Welford and Judy Corbett, traced these panels and negotiated with the museum, which sold the panels back to the Corbetts.