I’M A CELEBRITY’S NEW WELSH HOME
SET back into a verdant, wooded hillside with far-reaching views of the Welsh coastline, this is the ruined castle that looks set to replace the Australian jungle as the setting for this year’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.
The 200-year-old Gwrych Castle – which has a colourful history that includes being bequeathed to the Crown, hosting training camps for champion boxers, housing Jewish refugees during wartime, and being the subject of numerous ghost sightings – will be the location for this year’s series, it has been reported.
ITV last week announced plans to film the reality series – known for its gruesome Bushtucker Trials – in the UK rather than Australia because of the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.
At the time, producers would only specify that the location would be a ruined castle – sending the rumour mill into overdrive about which historic site would get the nod.
Now the striking facade of the 19th century Gwrych Castle, above
Abergele, Conwy, has emerged as the overwhelming favourite to host one of the most watched shows on British television.
The castle was built between 1812 and 1822 by Lloyd Hesketh BamfordHesketh as a permanent memorial to the Lloyds of Gwrych, his mother’s ancestors, passing to the Dundonald family in the late 19th century.
When Bamford-Hesketh’s granddaughter, the Countess of Dundonald, died in 1924, the castle was left to King George V – but the monarch refused the gift, sparking a succession of colourful uses, including staging a training camp for the champion boxer Randolph Turpin, homing 200 Jewish refugees during World War II, and hosting motorcycle rallies, medieval re-enactments and large festivals.
However, after it closed to the public in 1985, the building starting to fall into disrepair, despite a succession of failed plans to renovate it after it was bought by American businessman Nick Tavaglione in 1989.
More recently, there have been plans to spend £6m turning it into a luxury hotel, before it was eventually sold to its current owners, the Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust, in June 2018. Recent work to renovate the site has even coincided with a spike in reports of supernatural activity.
In 2016, Dr Mark Baker, chairman of Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust, said the restoration of the Gardener’s Tower at the site could have stirred up the spirit of the Countess, who used the first floor chamber in the building as her writing room until her death.
He said: “We started doing restoration work on the castle, particularly in the garden, and lots of strange things have been happening.
“We’ve had reports of people seeing a women dressed in white walking around the garden.
“During the summer I was walking with someone and we saw a bright light hovering above the garden which I just can’t explain.
“It is thought that the white lady could be the Countess of Dundonald, as we have just restored her private writing room.
“People have reported smelling her perfume, which is a scent of violets.”
ITV have so far remained tightlipped about the reports, with a spokesman saying only: “We pulled out all the stops to try and make the series happen in Australia.
“Unfortunately, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and despite us looking at many different contingencies, it became apparent that it just wasn’t possible for us to travel and make the show there.
“However, we are all really excited about a UK version of I’m A Celebrity. While it will certainly be different producing the show from the UK, the same tone and feel will remain.
“Our celebrities will probably have to swap shorts for thermals, but they can still look forward to a basic diet of rice and beans and plenty of thrills and surprises along the way.”