Castell Coch

The Mother’s Ghost

The young son of Dame Griffiths fell into a bottomless pool of dark water within the precincts and was never seen again. His mother was inconsolable and soon died from her grief. Her ghost restlessly continues to wander about the castle and its surrounding woods. 

Tongwynlais, South Wales

Some five miles to the north of Cardiff Castle stands the extraordinary Castell Coch or ‘Red Castle’. Clinging dramatically to a wooded hillside above the valley of the river Taff, this realised medieval fantasy was built on the foundations of a thirteenth century castle in the years 1875-1879, although the interior was not completed until 1891.

A collaboration between the Marquess of Bute and William Burges, the castle was planned as a summer residence although with only two main rooms and two bedrooms, it was always more an exercise in style than a practical residence. The castle had its own vineyard where the profoundly religious Bute produced altar wine as well as one or two good vintages for more general sale.

The vineyard has gone now but the Castle still remains as it was in 1891, a monument to the romantics who created it, set in a silent, brooding, beech wood.

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