Chirk Castle: National Trust

This weekend I visited Chirk Castle in Wales, just outside of Wrexham. It’s owned by the National Trust and with over 700 years of history it’s one of the last castles from the period which is still lived in today!

With award-winning gardens covering 5.5 acres of manicured lawns, herbaceous borders, beautiful flower beds, rock gardens, and the wooded pleasure ground. They are the perfect place for an afternoon walk!

Chirk was once owned by Sir Thomas Myddelton who was the son of the governor of Denbigh Castle. He had little hope of inheriting his father’s position, but with sources of wealth including privateering, sugar trading and investment in Merchant Companies which sought to exploit opportunities of global trade.In 1595 Sir Thomas bought Chirk Castle for £5,000 and he had planned on turning it into his family seat.

The next 400 years saw the Myddelton family rule a vast estate from Chirk Castle. After Sir Thomas there were generations of ambitious industrialists, entrepreneurs, and politicians.The castle is a wonderful place to explore, after Covid there are only a certain amount of rooms open. However, the rooms within Chirk Castle are stunning, with amazing roofs that showcase each room in a different way!

As you can see from the pictures below, there are certain aspects of the castle which are traditional and others which are more like a mansion house from the 1700s!

The gardens were originally designed by Sir Thomas, but major alterations were done in 1764 when Richard Myddelton commissioned the landscape architect William Emes to remodel the gardens. Emes made substantial changes, moving fences, walls, pathways, and planting vast lawns and thousands of trees.

Sadly the gardens were neglected during the Second World War, then almost single-handedly Lady Margaret Myddelton revived them creating the colourful planting scheme which is now taken care of by the National Trust.

Chirk Castle is a great day out for everyone, there’s so much to learn about the rooms in the castle, the gardens and surrounding grounds! Well worth a visit as the walks around the estate are well maintained and gorgeous views and a truly lovely place to spend a day walking.