Penrhyn Castle is a 15th century fortified manor house situated in Llandygai, near Bangor, Gwynedd.
The Penrhyn estate was itself founded by one Ednyfed Fychan (1170 – 1246), a Welsh nobleman who served Llywelyn Fawr(Llywelyn the Great) and his son Dafydd ap Llywelyn as seneschal. He was also a direct ancestor of Henry Tudor, who would one day become Henry VII.
Penrhyn Castle itself would not be built until 1406. Its builder/owner was a man by the name of Gwilym ap Griffith (?-1431) and he is perhaps best remembered as a Welsh nobleman who briefly lent his support to Owain Glyndŵr before withdrawing said support after he was briefly stripped of his lands. His return to supporting the crown led to his being rewarded lands of some of Glyndŵr’s noble supporters, including some belong to the Tudors of Penmynydd themselves.
By the 18th century, however, the manor would come into the ownership of the Pennant family through Richard Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn. Pennant, a Member of Parliament, profited enormously from the transatlantic slave trade and because of this, he was a staunch opponent of efforts to abolish slavery.
Even after Richard Pennant, the manor would pass to second cousin, George Hay Dawkins-Pennant, who rebuilt the manor in a neo-Norman style. Also a supporter of slavery, Dawkins-Pennant would be compensated handsomely when the Slavery Abolition Act was passed in 1833.
The Pennant family also profited enormously from slate quarries. In fact, when the Penrhyn estate passed to Dawkins-Pennant’s son-in-law, Edward Gordon Douglas-Pennant, Penrhyn Quarry would be further developed. However, as was often the case, these rich aristocrats loathed trade unions and showed little regard for the rights of their workers. Naturally so, this led to the Great Strike of 1900–1903 – which was the longest dispute in British industrial history.
By 1951, the castle’s ownership would be passed to the National Trust as a result of the National Land Fund in 1951 and it is today recognised as a Grade I listed building.
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