Wales · Restored
Chirk Castle
Castell y Waun
Chirk Castle is a medieval castle in Chirk, Wrexham County Borough, Wales, built in 1295 and later adapted as a country house. It is a Grade I listed building set within extensive historic gardens and parkland and is managed by the National Trust. The site combines its medieval fortress fabric with later domestic alterations and planned 18th-century landscape features.
First raised
1295
Its prime
1742
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1742
What Chirk Castle looked like in its prime.
A compact medieval stone fortress set in parkland, with continuous curtain walls and attached domestic ranges displaying 16th–17th-century mullioned and transomed windows. The castle is flanked by formal terraces and clipped yew hedges to the east, an outer walled courtyard to the north with a wrought-iron gateway, and an ornamental lake nearby into which part of Offa's Dyke is submerged; the roofline is a sequence of pitched roofs over lived-in ranges and service wings.
Its story
The story of Chirk Castle.
Edward's Chain and the Lordship of Chirkland, 1295–1593
Chirk Castle was built in 1295 by Roger Mortimer de Chirk, uncle of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, as one link in Edward I's chain of fortresses across the north of Wales, sited to guard the entrance to the Ceiriog Valley. It was the administrative centre of the Marcher Lordship of Chirkland, and was run as a March castle by the Layards Edwardes of Chirk until they were removed by the Star Chamber, when the castle was taken up by the Myddelton family.
The Myddeltons, the Civil War and the Restoration, from 1593
Sir Thomas Myddelton bought the castle in 1593 for £5,000 — reckoned at roughly £18 million in 2024 terms. Mullioned and transomed windows were inserted in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the castle was partly demolished during the English Civil War before being rebuilt.
His son, Thomas Myddelton of Chirk Castle, was a Parliamentarian during the war but turned Royalist in the Cheshire rising of 1659, led by George Booth, 1st Baron Delamer. Following the Restoration his own son became Sir Thomas Myddelton, 1st Baronet of Chirke.
Myddelton-Biddulphs to the National Trust, 1796 Onwards
The castle passed down the Myddelton line to Charlotte Myddelton on her father's death in 1796. Charlotte had married Robert Biddulph, who changed his name to Robert Myddelton-Biddulph and on his death left Chirk to their son Robert; it then descended through the Myddelton-Biddulph family.
From before the First World War until after the Second it was leased by Thomas Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden, a prominent patron of the arts and champion of Welsh culture. In 1918 the castle was used as a filming location for Herbert Brenon's Victory and Peace, and the baron opened up parts of the castle to evacuees during the later part of the Second World War. The Myddelton family returned to live at Chirk until 2004. The castle and its gardens are now owned and run by the National Trust and open to the public.
Step inside
10 places to explore in 1742.
The record describes 10 distinct spots at Chirk Castle, including the full exterior approach. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held Chirk Castle.
The families that held Chirk Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Myddelton
Home of the Myddelton family, 1595–2004.
Nearby
