Llangoed Hall
Llangoed Hall is a country house hotel, near the village of Llyswen, in Powys, Mid Wales. It is known for its decoration in Laura Ashley fabrics and styles, and was owned by Sir Bernard Ashley, the widower of the designer. It is a Grade II* listed building.
History
The Hall, originally known as Llangoed Castle, was donated to the church in 560 by Prince Iddon in expiation of his sins, and may have been the legendary White Palace, home of the first Welsh parliament. A mansion existed from 1632. It was in the possession of the Macnamara family for two generations until 1847, having been won in a game of cards. In 1912 Clough Williams-Ellis re-designed it as a country house, retaining the surviving Jacobean porch as part of the south wing. Sir Bernard Ashley bought Llangoed Hall in 1987 and opened it as a hotel in 1990.
The house has a number of curiosities, and is rumoured by local folklore to have a ghost named Arginald, a boy who committed suicide in the 1940s. A family cemetery nearby contains the grave of a horse.
Llangoed
Llangoed is a small village, community and electoral ward just north of Beaumaris, on the Isle of Anglesey or Ynys Môn, at grid reference SH609793. The Royal Mail postcode begins LL58. Llangoed ward has a population of 1,275 (2001), falling at the 2011 census to 1,229.
The village's placename means the 'religious enclosure in the wood' in the Welsh language.
Llangoed is on the banks of a brook called the Afon Lleiniog, which flows from the hamlet of Glanrafon to the sea, beneath the ruins of an 11th-century motte-and-bailey castle, Castell Aberlleiniog.
The 17th-century parish church of St Cawrdaf, restored in the 19th century, is in the north of the village, near a Victorian school and chapel.
The modern centre of the village is a steep hill lined by cottages, a Post Office, grocery store and chapel. To the south of the village is a primary school, Ysgol Gynradd Llangoed, and small housing estates. Sports fields are the location of an annual Rugby sevens competition. Undulating green farmland surrounds the village, with fine views to the Menai Strait, the Irish Sea and the mountains of Snowdonia (in Welsh, Eryri).
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