National Trust - Penrhyn Castle & Garden — Attraction in Llandygai

UNWELCOMING AND RUDE STAFF, BARE BONES INSIDE BUT STUNNING VIEWS. The castle was absolutely beautiful and great to walk around, though some rooms felt very bare or just too staged. The gardens and walk around the castle was also absolutely stunning, though still just two/three hours worth of the place isn’t worth £15 per person. My main complaint however is with the staff - both the grounds staff and national trust staff at the welcome centre were pushy and rude. Me and my husband have no car, and therefore walked the 3/4 mile road to the welcome centre - as we did, a lady on a buggy stopped us and accused us of trespassing as we weren’t trust members. It was unwelcoming and accusatory, as all we were trying to do is walk to the castle to pay for our tickets. She accused us of trespassing on the properly and not paying, as „it’s very expensive to upkeep and people not paying can ruin it”, as if we weren’t clearly on the path toward the welcome centre. She then drove off after pretending to help direct us, then as we got to the welcome centre I asked the women there what the lady meant by trespassing, they told us that she had nothing to do with their charity and she was just a grounds keeper. They talked to us for like 10 minutes just about signing up to the trust even though we explained to her we just wanted our tickets. My husband is Polish and has a slight accent, and when he tried to ask for our tickets she badgered him with questions about where he was from and if he was on holiday, and it took me answering for him in my English accent for her to stop asking questions and blankly staring at him when he would answer. Insanely pushy and simply stare at you when you’re just trying to enjoy yourself in the castle, badgering you to join the tour even when you say you’d just like to walk around. Not a single person asked for our tickets, honestly if I go again I’ll simply just walk in because it was a waste of £30, on top of the extortionate prices in the cafe...

It is a great place to visit when you're a trust member as it is costs effective for visiting lots of the trust run places, but if you're choosing to pay the full admission price it can tally up a fair bit! There's plenty of blue badge parking near the visitors centre but there is also a small disabled parking area for those that need to use it near the castle. The car park itself seemed to offer ample free parking. There are toilet/ accessible toilets at the visitors centre as well as within the castle grounds. The accessible entrance to the castle is through the cafe/shop that is signposted in the court yard, we had a lovely staff member walk us through as the ropes had to be unclipped and she took us to start where the main entrance would come in so as not to miss anything. The whole of the ground floor is accessible to anyone with mobility issues in a wheelchair or other walking aids. There are places for people to sit and rest a while dotted about. If you want to see the information about the upper floor, there is a video available to sit and watch. The cafe staff were friendly and helpful, we just had a coffee but it was a decent one. The grounds have plenty of walks. There's a circular walk that is flat and has lots of benches at small intervals. We thought we would try the walled Gardens. It's very sloped, and we realised that it was going to take a bit of whelly getting back up with the wheelchair. The gardens were lovely, if not a little disappointing, that we could only access the top area and just overlook the lower sections! It would have been nice to wander around and enjoy the gardens more. After a strenuous return from the walled gardens, we enjoyed the picnic bench area in the sunshine where we had our packed lunch and a much needed rest. There was much more to explore here after our day out, and we will happily return another day as we really enjoyed the tranquillity of the grounds and accessibility of the castle and facilities. Dogs are...

Absolutely stunning place, inside and out. Walking up to the castle, there are beautiful views across the water to Anglesey and Llandudno. We went on a sunny day and the hues of blue were fabulous alongside the fields and hills.

The castle itself is very impressive from the outside but once you go in, it really is something spectacular. The intricate / elaborate designs of the interior is amazing. I got lost in looking at the carvings in the solid oak and stone.

Within the castle there are some remnants of the quarry history and whilst the train collection has been dismantled over the last few years, it still houses 'Charlie' the steam engine with old carriages and an informative video.

Outside the grounds are full of beautiful old trees and swallows darting over head, stopping to rest on the castle. Possinly also saw sand or house martins in the fields but they were quite quick, but definitely a different bird to the swallows.

The play area is small but nice for the kids and there were some additional summer of fun activities on the lawn.

The walled garden was also lovely with some more unusual specimins.

There is a lot of symmetry in both the house furniture, designs and the gardens with the matching lily ponds. A bit of a steeper walk down a gravel path so good footwear is needed.

We got the golf buggy back down as we were all tired after a lot of walking & exploring.

If you like ice cream, recommend the cafe and tubs of gelato. Absolutely humongous portion which I had no guilt eating after all the steps we'd done! Significantly better value for money than the prepacked ones!

We...