Wales · Still standing
Pen y Bryn
Pen y Bryn is a small stone country house commonly referred to as a castle, standing in a wooded Welsh valley. The building combines a long two-storey gabled main block with a tall cylindrical tower at one end, set around a circular forecourt and lawn within a gravel drive.
Its prime
1880
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1880
What Pen y Bryn looked like in its prime.
Long rectangular two-storey stone main block with a steep slate roof punctured by gabled dormers and multiple stone chimneys; central arched entrance reached by a short flight of steps. At the building's right end rises a tall cylindrical tower with narrow vertical windows and a conical roof; tower walls are the same pale-grey rubble stone. The house sits at the head of a circular gravel drive enclosing a round grassy forecourt, surrounded by mature trees and a wooded valley.
Its story
The story of Pen y Bryn.
Pen y Bryn stands within Garth Celyn, a double bank and ditch overlooking the Menai Strait to Anglesey, at Abergwyngregyn between Bangor and Conwy. There is evidence of long use and multiple rebuildings before 1624 — the date to which the present roof timbers have been tree-ring dated, when the house was refurbished — though historians disagree on the duration and nature of its mediaeval use. The building incorporates a four-storey stone tower.
In 1553 Rhys Thomas and his wife Jane acquired the house from the Crown. A smaller house stood immediately adjacent when Sir Richard Colt-Hoare recorded it in 1811; it was demolished by 1815. Built mainly of broken stone with roughly dressed quoins under a slate roof, the two-storey manor house is commonly referred to as a castle.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1880.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Pen y Bryn — including the full exterior approach. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Create History
Recreate Pen y Bryn with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1880 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Whose castle
Clans who held Pen y Bryn.
The families that held Pen y Bryn for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
Rhys Thomas and his wife Jane acquired the house from the Crown in 1553.
