PLAS
MAWR - Ghosts of the "Great Mansion"
Elizabethan Townhouse of Conwy
It
is one of the best preserved townhouses of the Elizabethan age, located
on the narrow High Street of Conwy in North Wales, around the corner
from the masterpiece medieval castle of Edward I (see Conwy Castle).
Plas Mawr essentially means “Great
Mansion” and was the residence of wealthy Conwy merchant Robert
Wynn. He came from one of Wales' wealthiest families, but as only the
third son, had to make his own way in the world. By the age of fifty
he’d amassed enough personal fortune to build himself a mansion. 
The
house was built between 1576 and 1585 within a short walk of Conwy’s
protected tidal harbor. Plas Mawr is furnished in the Tudor style as
it would have been during the Wynn family’s time, based of an inventory
of the house’s contents in 1665. The house is noted for its great
hall and kitchen, elegant wood-paneled rooms and enclosed garden, with
carpets of straw matting as was common of the time. The ornamental plaster
work and ceilings are perhaps quite curious with bare breasted figurines
from a more open time and Robert Wynn’s initials RW found everywhere
about along with those of the queen of his day Elizabeth Regina. The
house is an example of a prosperous era frozen in time.
Plas Mawr is also noted for its famed tragic ghost story and notorious
haunted lantern room attic. While Wynn was traveling, his pregnant second
wife was watching for his return in the tower, but slipped while coming
down the tight winding stairs carrying her young son. The house servants
carried her to the “Lantern Room” and an inexperienced young
doctor had come rather than her regular physician. The young doctor,
confronted with 
a
pregnant woman going into labor and badly injured child, felt he was
over head and tried to leave, but the servants locked him
in the room. When Wynn arrived home he hurried to the room, only to find
his wife, son and premature baby all dead. The doctor was nowhere to
be found and no windows to escape from, and was never seen again. There
is some legend that he either committed suicide or crawled up the chimney
and got stuck and died there. Strange sounds and senses are experienced
in the lantern room and tower and is notoriously haunted, but uncertain
whether it is Wynn, filled with grief for his family, his wife for her
loss of her children, or the young doctor, suffering his guilt.
Admission
to Plas Mawr is £4.95 for adults with a family ticket
for £14.50 (2 adults and up to 3 children up to 16 years). The
house is open from the 1st of April to the 31st or October, with special
events held during the year, like Elizabethan Spy and Codes weekends.
Plas Mawr is within walking distance of the rail station, and Conwy (pronounced
Conway)
itself
a
lovely walled
medieval
town for exploring near the Snowdonia National Park. © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Conwy
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SEE ALSO:
SHAKESPEARE AT DAWSON'S BAR - THE CASTLE HOTEL
PORTMEIRION "Prisoner" VILLAGE AND GARDEN
COUNTRY HOUSE B&B PERCY SHELLEY HISTORY
PENTRE-MAWR
FARMHOUSE B&B
HARLECH CASTLE SNOWDONIA COAST
