History of Chirk Castle

An introduction to Chirk Castle

High on an outcrop where the Dee and Ceiriog rivers meet, Chirk Castle has overlooked the Welsh borderlands since 1295. 

What began as a frontier fortress created for Marcher Lord Sir Roger Mortimer, as part of Edward I’s “Iron Ring” to subdue the Welsh, evolved into a grand country house, withstood the turmoil of civil war, and showcased the flourish of Gothic Revival.

Its buildings, collections and gardens tell seven centuries of shifting power and taste - from feudal barons to wealthy merchants to today’s conservationists.

After passing through many hands, the Myddelton family made Chirk their home for over four hundred years, transforming it into Wales’ finest example of a medieval stronghold seamlessly adapted for domestic life. 

Fortress on the Frontier 

Roger Mortimer built a fortress at Chirk to secure Edward I’s grip on newly conquered Wales. By 1310, its formidable round towers, curtain walls, and gatehouse - complete with double portcullis, arrow slits, “murder holes,” and a dungeon carved from bedrock - stood as a stark symbol of English dominance.

The castle was surrounded by a hunting park and carefully managed oak and ash woodlands, while its whitewashed stone gleamed across a landscape still marked by Offa’s Dyke, the 8th century ancient boundary between Mercia and Powys. 

In 1308, Edward II elevated Mortimer to ‘Justiciar of Wales,’ granting him quasi-royal authority. But his later rebellion against the Crown led to imprisonment and death in the Tower of London in 1326, ushering in a pattern of violent succession that would characterise Chirk for centuries. 

Throughout the later Middle Ages, ownership of Chirk proved perilous. Five of its holders were executed for treason, their lands confiscated, and their tenants caught up in the uncertainties of Marcher politics.

After Mortimer’s fall, Chirk passed briefly to the Earl of Arundel - only to see him beheaded in turn by Mortimer’s ambitious nephew, Roger of Wigmore, after he and Queen Isabella deposed Edward II. But the reversal was short-lived: in 1330, Edward III gained power and had Roger executed. 

The FitzAlan Earls of Arundel held Chirk from 1335 to 1415, but were largely absent and made only modest improvements. In 1495, after Chirk’s then owner Sir William Stanley had been executed for treason, the crown held the estate once more. In 1563, Elizabeth I gave the Castle to her favourite, Robert Dudley. But by the late 16th century Chirk was a neglected and unfashionable military relic. 

The Myddelton Transformation  

Everything changed in 1595, when Sir Thomas Myddelton I bought Chirk for £5,000. The younger son of Welsh gentry, Thomas had made his fortune in London as a merchant, and was, along with his father Richard, a founder of the East India Company, investor in the Virginia Company, and later property investor and money lender. Thomas became Lord Mayor of London in 1613 and later a member of Parliament for the City of London.   

Myddelton turned Chirk into a comfortable home. Clearing redundant military structures, he introduced purpose-built domestic ranges, service and agricultural buildings and added a striking civic feature in the clock tower, laying the foundation for Chirk’s four centuries as a family home. 

Beyond the castle walls, he became Denbighshire’s greatest landowner, developing new copper mines, and firmly established the Myddelton’s local authority. He also made a notable cultural contribution, as patron of the first popular-format Welsh Bible. 

His son, Sir Thomas Myddelton II, served as a Parliamentarian general during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (later known as the English Civil War). Chirk endured attacks from both Royalist and Parliamentarian forces, while Myddelton’s loyalties shifted with the tides of war. Though heavily damaged, the castle survived and was returned to the family by Charles II.

There followed a careful, multi-generational restoration that transformed Chirk from a battered stronghold into a stately family seat. 

A significant collection survives from this period, including a nationally important library and examples of musketry. 

Aristocratic Refinement  

By the mid-18th century, Chirk’s owners were gaining wealth from local mines and profitable marriage and reinvesting it in their home and estate. 

In the 1760s, Sir Richard Myddelton had married wealthy heiress Elizabeth Rushout. They commissioned Joseph Turner to create neoclassical State Rooms: a suite of elegant drawing rooms, dining chamber, and saloon, each adorned with Adam-inspired plasterwork, Ionic columns and a sweeping cantilevered staircase.

Meanwhile, William Emes was appointed to landscape the park and gardens. Emes swept away roads, formal gardens, walls and fences, created rolling lawns and open views across the countryside, and trees plantings that still define the parkland’s character. 

By the 1840s, the taste had shifted back toward the medieval. Colonel Robert Myddelton Biddulph (1805–72), brought in the famous Gothic Revival architect Augustus Pugin to redesign parts of Chirk Castle. Best known for his work on the Houses of Parliament, Pugin’s Victorian “re-medievalisation” included the dramatic Cromwell Hall, richly coloured interiors and remodelling the external appearances of East and South Wings.

Pugin didn’t find the work straightforward saying in 1846 that "Such a job as Chirk is enough to drive any man mad.” When Pugin died unexpectedly in 1852, his son completed the commission. 

Twentieth-Century Transition  

By 1900, agricultural rents in Britain had fallen sharply and death duties loomed. Richard Myddelton (1837–1913) opened the castle to the public but donated the proceeds to charity.  

By 1911 he was forced to take drastic action. After auctioning off land and buildings, he leased Chirk to the 8th Lord Howard de Walden. For 35 years “Tommy” Scott-Ellis (1880–1946) took Chirk, and Wales, into his heart. A patron of the arts, he hosted literary and artistic luminaries at Chirk including Augustus John, Dylan Thomas and George Bernard Shaw. He supported the National Eisteddfod and created the National Theatre of Wales. ‘Tommy’ retired to his Scottish estates in 1946 and died shortly after. 

The Myddeltons returned to Chirk in 1949. The war years had left the garden neglected and Lieutenant-Colonel Ririd and Lady Margaret Myddelton were determined to improve things.  They removed many of Pugin’s Victorian interventions and reinstated some neoclassical calm. But with running costs outpacing personal means, they passed Chirk to the state in 1978.

Urgent major repairs were then funded by the National Land Fund and in 1981 the National Trust took stewardship of the castle. 

National Trust and Beyond  

Under the Trust’s care, Chirk has focused on community engagement and conservation. Major grants have repaired medieval towers and conserved delicate plasterwork, while new “all-weather” woodland paths and family trails invite visitors to explore the estate.  

The nationally significant collection is the result of four centuries of continuous habitation by the Myddelton family. Now secured for the nation, its beautiful and important artworks, furniture and documents reveal complex global connections. Highlights include two gilt-wood pier-glasses of 1782 made from the largest plate-glass then available; Elizabeth Rushout’s 1742 Burkat Shudi oak and walnut harpsichord; a circa-1600 Japanese shagreen chest, among Wales’s earliest Japanese imports; and a newly conserved full-length portrait of servant John Wilton (d. 1751), displayed in the atmospheric Servants’ Hall. 

After 700 years, Chirk Castle still commands its borderland perch. An incredible history of marcher lords, merchant magnates, and artistic patrons - blending medieval defence, neoclassical elegance, and rural enterprise into a single estate that mirrors Britain’s own unfolding story. 

Further reading

• John Davies, A History of Wales (1993).
• R. R. Davies, The Age of Conquest: Wales 1063–1415 (1987). 
• Marc Morris, Castles: Their Construction and History (2011). 
• Paul Atterbury & Clive Wainwright, Pugin: A Gothic Passion (1994).
• Keith Ray & Ian Bapty, Offa's Dyke: Landscape & Hegemony in Eighth-Century Britain (2016).
• National Library of Wales: Chirk Castle Estate Records
• The Pugin Society