Plas Dinas

Plas Dinas is a Grade II listed building in Bontnewydd, Gwynedd, near Caernarfon in North Wales, between the Welsh coast and the Snowdonia mountains.[2][3] It is a large country house which retains significant features of an early 17th-century house at its core.

Plas Dinas
Front of the building
General information
TypeCountry house
Hotel (since 1990s)
LocationBontnewydd, Gwynedd
CountryWales
Coordinates53°06′31″N 04°16′32″W
Construction startedEarly 17th century
Listed Building – Grade II
Official namePlas Dinas
Designated29 May 1968
Reference no.3809[1]

Since 1915 the estate has been in the hands of the Armstrong-Jones family. Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon spent much time there, including with Princess Margaret during their marriage from 1960 to 1978.

Since the 1990s the mansion has been a country house hotel, now called Plas Dinas Country House.

History

Plas Dinas is a large country house incorporating an early 17th-century house.[4] It had a later 17th-century addition as well as major 19th-century additions.[4] From its mid-17th century expansion it has a reset gritstone tablet dated 1653, with a coat of arms and inscribed with "T . W I . W" for Thomas and Jane Williams.[5][4] Thomas Williams was a son of Sir Thomas Williams of Vaynol, and was Sheriff of Caernarvonshire from 1647 to 1648.[4]

The house was enlarged in the Victorian era.[5] It was the home of Owen Roberts, land agent to the wealthy Thomas Assheton Smith family.[5][4] In the early 20th century his son, barrister and education pioneer Sir Owen Roberts, lived at Plas Dinas when he was not occupied in England.[6][5] Upon the death of Sir Owen Roberts in 1915, Plas Dinas passed to his daughter Margaret Elizabeth,[5] who in 1893 had married Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones, a Welsh psychiatrist.[7]

In the 20th century[8] Plas Dinas was owned by three generations of the Armstrong-Jones family, including Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones's son Ronald Armstrong-Jones, Q.C., who was the father of Lord Snowdon.[4] When the Armstrong-Jones family moved to the London area, they retained Plas Dinas as their country home.[9] Upon the death of Ronald Armstrong-Jones in 1966, the Plas Dinas estate was bequeathed to Snowdon's much younger half-brother Peregrine Armstrong-Jones.[10][11]

At the entrance to the drive is Plas Dinas lodge. During the Second World War, there was prisoner of war camp in the field across the drive from the lodge.[5] In 1946, at the age of 16, Lord Snowden was holidaying at Plas Dinas when he contracted polio.[12][13]

The home was designated a listed building on 29 May 1968.[1]

Princess Margaret, who was married to Lord Snowdon from 1960 to 1978, spent many weekends at Plas Dinas with him,[14] particularly after Snowdon was appointed Constable of Caernarfon Castle in 1963, and later was designing and organising the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales,[15][16][17] which was held at Caernarfon Castle in 1969.[18]

Plas Dinas, looking west-northwest (2013)

In the 1980s, the Armstrong-Jones family leased out the house as a nursing home, before it was converted to a hotel in the 1990s.[16] Proprietors have been running it as Plas Dinas Country House, a 5-star country house hotel, since the mid 2000s.[16] It still contains many Armstrong-Jones family portraits, memorabilia, and original furniture.[9][2] The hotel includes a restaurant, The Gunroom, which contains the original early 17th-century stone fireplace that the mansion was built around over the centuries.[19] In 2022 the restaurant was added to the Michelin Guide after inspectors were impressed with the food and its presentation.[18]

References
  1. Cadw. "Plas Dinas (3809)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  2. Gillilan, Lesley (27 December 2003). "Lording it". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 May 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  3. Stirling, Sarah. "Plas Dinas". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 21 May 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  4. "Plas Dinas". britishlistedbuildings.co.uk. Archived from the original on 19 May 2023. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  5. "Plas Dinas, Bontnewydd". HistoryPoints.org. Archived from the original on 20 May 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  6. Burke, Bernard; Burke, Ashworth Peter (1910). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage and Companionage. Harrison. p. 2319.
  7. Brown, G. H. "Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones". Inspiring Physicians Roll of the Royal College of Physicians. Vol. IV of Munk's Roll. Royal College of Physicians. p. 480. Archived from the original on 10 February 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023. He married in 1893 Margaret Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Owen Roberts, and had a son and two daughters. He died at his home in Caernarvon.
  8. DiCamillo, Curt. "Plas Dinas". DiCamillo.com. Archived from the original on 24 May 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  9. "A Historic Home". plasdinas.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 March 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2015. In 1899 Sir Robert Jones, who subsequently altered his name to Armstrong-Jones, had a son named Ronald. The family was, at that time, living in the London area and retained Plas Dinas as their country home. Sir Ronald Jones married Anne, and the marriage produced a son, Antony, who in 1961 [sic] married HRH Princess Margaret, the Queen's sister.
  10. de Courcy, Anne (2012). Snowdon: The Biography. Orion. ISBN 9780297856047. The year 1966 had begun badly. On 27 January Ronnie had died of cancer at Plas Dinas. ... To Tony's annoyed surprise the family property did not pass to him as Ronnie's eldest son. Instead, the Plas Dinas estate – the house, a collection of cottages, and farmland – was left to his young half-brother Peregrine, who would come into it at the age of twenty-five. The main farm, by the house, was sold to pay death duties.
  11. "Plas Dinas Properties Limited". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 20 May 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  12. Bonnici, Tony (13 January 2017). "Lord Snowdon 'a royal rebel' whose North Wales connections were more than just a title". North Wales Live. Archived from the original on 25 May 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  13. de Courcy, Anne (2012). Snowdon: The Biography. Orion. ISBN 9780297856047. In the summer holidays of 1946 at Plas Dinas .... he felt a terrible pain in his leg. ... Once polio was diagnosed ....
  14. Banner-Price, Andy (24 December 2009). "Princess Margaret remembered at Caernarfon's Plas Dinas". BBC News. Archived from the original on 21 May 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  15. Tooze, Jessica (20 August 2010). "Step back in time for the visit of a royal princess". Britain Magazine. Archived from the original on 20 May 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  16. Capper, Ian (13 October 2013). "Plas Dinas". geograph.org.uk. Archived from the original on 20 May 2023. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  17. Hughes, Owen (10 January 2019). "Former mansion of Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon is on the market". WalesOnline. Archived from the original on 21 May 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
  18. Crump, Eryl (4 May 2022). "Gwynedd restaurant in Lord Snowdon's former home added to Michelin Guide". North Wales Live. Archived from the original on 25 May 2023. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  19. "The Gunroom". Michelin Guide. Archived from the original on 20 May 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
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