Brecon Road,
Pen-y-Cae,
Powys SA9 1GL

Craig-y-Nos Castle is a trading style of SelClene Ltd

Tel (Daytime) 01639 731167
or 01639 730205

Tel (Evening) 01639 731167

e-mail   bookings_craigynos@hotmail.com

Castle bookings can be confirmed using the above e-mail address, or any address ending in either
@selclene.co.uk or @craigynoscastle.com

 Fax 01639 731077

Start outside in the courtyard.

(1) Looking up at the front of the castle:

Notice the different colour of STONE; the original grey stone is the Gothic part built in 1843 by Captain Rice Powell, including the pyramids. Observe that none of the WINDOWS on the Gothic part are similar or symmetrical. This is the old part of the building. The original Gothic manor-house was built in 1843 by Captain RICE POWELL who had made his money from mining in India.

On the left side (from the kitchen area) looking up at the turreted section and left, to the theatre, point out the RED stone. This was mined from a different quarry and added on by Adelina Patti from 1870. (The greyer colour of the stone to right of clock tower – see picture - was caused by the sealing solution used when we waterproofed that area of wall).

(2) Standing on the stairs or in the foyer:

Come in from the courtyard, up the steps and turn around to face the fountain. looking up you will see the black carved woodwork on the ceiling of the foyer. This is original.

(3) In the hall:

A small child is reputed to have been seen standing at the bottom of the stairs, accompanied by a soldier, whom we assume to be Baron Cederstrom. The staircase, which is where Adelina Patti fell, is no longer there. 

The fall made Adelina bed-ridden and she contracted pneumonia and died.

The door to the Patti Bar is the division between the old Gothic house with grey stone, (shown in the picture), built by Rice Powell, and the later red stone buildings built by Patti. The buildings which now house the Patti bar, Function Room, Clock Tower and Theatre are absent from the photograph.

The Overbeck Curse relates to two families who are represented as black and white wolves. One, being the Rice Powell family, was cursed by the other, and it is said that the deaths of three of Rice Powell's children  were just one of the tragic consequences. His brother and sister also died while he was building this house.

(4) The Nicolini Bar:

This was formerly the LIBRARY of Patti's second husband Ernesto Nicolini. A number of people claim to have heard a man's voice, apparently shouting orders in this room.

Look at the view from the bay window which takes in the mountains and the Country Park. 

Walk through to the Breakfast Room

(5) The Breakfast Room:

This is said to have a bad energy and to be "very active". It was however said to be Patti's favourite room. The doorway into the conservatory has been described as especially "sinister". The picture on the left shows the Breakfast Room as it was in Patti's day.

Come out of the side door into the passageway and turn right, down the steep steps, into the cellar.

(6) The Cellar:

Walk into the main area outside store / slab room. This includes the Butler's Pantry, Poultry and Meat hanging rooms along with the kitchens where Adelina Patti's servants would have worked. 

According to the "Most Haunted" film research team there is a man down here who molested girls and was a particularly nasty person. Perhaps he is in the picture of Adelina's servants on the right, or maybe he came later and worked at the Castle in the hospital days.

Now enter the "Slab Room" where Adelina Patti was laid to rest after being embalmed. Her coffin was sealed with lead, melted by hot pokers from the kitchen fires.

See the hooks for hanging game and the thick slate slab on which Adelina's body rested. The round stone hatch apparently covers the well in the cellar and we do not know what is down there.

Walk out of the cellar into the passageway and along the corridor to the Atrium Courtyard.

(7) The Atrium Courtyard:

This was formerly the servants' quarters, when it comprised three separate buildings. In the hospital days it housed the X-ray and Pharmacy departments. Adjacent was the Mortuary and the Nurses' block.

From here head down the long passageway to the call centre.

(8) The North and South Wards:

These are now the offices and dormitory and you can still see the original hospital bed lights working, after being re-wired. Visitors have pinpointed under which light a particular relative had died.

Retrace your steps into the conservatory, via the stationery store.

(9) The Conservatory:

This was Adelina's conservatory and had fine furnishings, plants and drapes (see picture on left). Note the coloured glass where most of the triangular panes are original.

This was the children's' ward and a great many died here at an early age. Bill Harrison and the Ghostwatch investigators identified this as a very sad area with the voices of  babies and young children crying out.

Also in the conservatory is the page in the"League of Friends" booklet showing the conservatory in use as a hospital ward. Note how they packed people in.

Exit up the slope to the Atrium Yard and take the entrance to the Duplex. Head along the corridor to Room 36.

(10) Room 36 (En-Suite One):

It was in this room that the historian of Most Haunted TV awoke in the middle of the night  to see an "invisible door" facing the bridal suite (the wall behind the bed in the picture on the right). He could also see a female figure in his bed, but in the morning the door was gone and so was the lady!

Sue, our wedding planner, and Steve, our builder and jazz player, later investigated the area of wall by tapping it. Near the window they noted a hollow sound across a section roughly the width and height of a door. The door, if it ever existed would have provided access to room 30, the Bridal Suite, which used to be Adelina's private chapel. 

The room next door to room 36 on the other side, Room 35, was the one which Yvette Fielding from Most Haunted refused to sleep in. 

(11) The Bridal Suite:

This was formerly Adelina's Chapel and was derelict when we took over the Castle. We converted it into a luxury bridal-suite and made the adjoining vestry into a bathroom.

The priest, carrying his bible,  would enter the vestry (bathroom) at prayer-time by means of a separate entrance from the corridor, behind where the shower is now located. Once Patti was settled in prayer he would enter the chapel via the door which still connects it to the former vestry.

The vestry was in a terrible state, with holes in the ceiling, and appeared to be the only room not used by the hospital. Many years ago someone had installed a light and mirror, but the bathroom fittings which we found in the room had never been plumbed in and the room had been sealed up.

We found an old bible resting on the window ledge when we unsealed the room. Over time our staff and workmen began to report seeing the bible move, or finding it in different positions. Some said it moved of its own accord from the vestry into the chapel, as if the old priest was carrying it in to Adelina. Just as he had done so many times before. The bible has subsequently disappeared.

Leanne, one of our wedding planners, became particularly concerned about the "moving bible" and Martin suggested she should photograph it before leaving for the night, and check its position in the morning. She did not act on this suggestion immediately however.

Martin was checking the building late one evening and although the vestry door was closed he found the bible wedged under a piece of rubble. He picked it up and put it in its usual position on the window ledge, leaving the vestry door ajar (just in case the bible fancied a trip into the chapel).

The next morning, on entering the office, Martin was greeted by a quivering wreck, Leanne, not white but grey with fear. Her opening words were "IT'S MOOOOOVED!!". "What's moved" Martin asked as he casually looked up from his papers. Leanne then explained how she had wedged the bible under a large piece of rubble and photographed it in position, closing the door into the adjoining chapel room for good measure, all to make sure it couldn't move. 

In the morning she had the shock of her life.

Now proceed through the new inner landing to the derelict part of the castle and the Patti Boudoir.

(12) The Patti Boudoir:

This is believed to have been Adelina Patti's bedroom and the top picture on the right shows it as it was in Patti's day. The bottom picture shows it as it is today. Adelina obviously chose this room for its wonderful views over the Country Park. It has a nice warm feeling about it, (except in winter as it has no heating).

Head down the stairs to the function rooms.

(13) The Patti Bar:

Go down the hospital staircase and back into the refurbished part of the castle. Turn right into what is now the Patti Bar and look at the original tiled fireplace.

One evening Dave Cottle, a musician with our jazz players sat by the fireplace waiting for two fellow band members. He got into conversation with a lady in black who sat next to him in the corner, who asked him if he sang. "No I don't sing, I play instruments" he said. The lady replied "So you don't sing then, its a shame".

When his friends came he was still in conversation with the lady and they asked him to whom he was talking. He said "The lady in the corner" but they couldn't see her. Dave went very quite and pale when he realised he had been holding a conversation with an apparition.

From the Patti Bar go through the door into the Kitchen.

(14) Strange events in the Kitchen:

Martin Gover, the castle owner, was in the kitchen one evening along with Ian Sax when the "IN DOOR" started flapping wildly to and fro. They went outside into the Patti Bar to see who was doing it, but the bar was deserted and the doors were all closed. It turned out that everyone was in the "Blue Bar" that evening, and with all the windows and doors closed no draughts were present to explain the phenomenon.

Leave the kitchen and turn left to enter the billiard and music rooms.

(15) The Billiard and Music Rooms:

These were added on to the original building by Adelina Patti and are now used as function rooms for parties, weddings and conferences. During the sixty years as a hospital these rooms were known as "Ward 2", a mixed general ward for the less ambulant.

Patients with T.B. benefit from lots of fresh air and they would be wheeled outside in their beds in all weathers, even in the middle of winter. Rubberised blankets would be placed over the beds to protect them from the rain and snow would sometimes settle on them to a thickness of several inches during the night.

We have now opened up the old fireplaces and are using them once more to heat the castle. This requires a full time person chopping logs and feeding the log burners.

In Adelina Patti's times they burn 40 tons per month of local coal to heat the castle and provide gas and electricity from the Castle's own generating station. (see www.opera-singer.co.uk )

A limestone fireplace similar to the one shown on the right has recently been installed in the music room.

The Billiard and music rooms were used by Adelina Patti as reception rooms for visitors to the adjacent Patti Theatre. Here she entertained dignitaries and royalty from all over the world, including her reputed lover Edward V11, when he was Prince of Wales. For over twenty five years she also sang on private occasions for his mother Queen Victoria.

Now enter the theatre.

(16) The Patti Theatre:

Take in the unique atmosphere of Adelina's private theatre from near the glass entrance doors. The psychic artist with the "Most Haunted" crew drew a portrait of a lady and gentleman, considered to be Adelina and Rossini, to whom she was very close. Rossini was her favourite composer and she loved to sing his works. She honoured him by inscribing his name in pride of place over the centre of her theatre stage and sang at his funeral. Other composers also have plaques around the ceiling of the theatre, but Rossini's is most prominent.

Move to the stage... When Martin, the owner, and his girlfriend first moved into The Castle he prepared a conference speech to be delivered on Halloween in October 2001. One evening, when everyone else had gone home he locked himself in the theatre (see how the thick steel bolts snap home as you turn the handle of the theatre doors) to rehearse his speech to the empty auditorium.

It was around 11-40 pm as he began to run through his twenty minute oratory and he suddenly thought he saw one of the previously locked doors swing open. Assuming that someone else was still in the castle and had overheard him he continued to the end of the speech, all the time aware of someone watching him and sensing their presence.

He then walked over to find the doors wide open although all the adjacent corridors and rooms were empty and the castle was deserted, apart from himself. Martin knows he bolted those heavy doors from the inside, twisting the handle until the bolts locked into their housings at both the top and bottom. At the time Martin was a sceptic when it came to paranormal events and being engrossed in delivering his speech his mind was not wandering to imagine such things.  

He now regards this as a significant paranormal occurrence.

(17) The Auditorium Orchestra Pit

Under the boards at the front of the stage is a pit for a 16 piece orchestra, and beyond it are changing rooms. In October 2003 the Ghost Watch Team had their investigators sleep in these cellars beneath the stage. They heard the sound of a ball being bounced between the beds in what was the former dressing room. They also picked up on giggling and a child's laughter, as if it was playing. In the hospital days this was a rest and play area and later a television was installed in the theatre.

On New Years Eve of 2003 these cellars were used as bedrooms for the overflow of guests who attended the celebrations. They also reported hearing a bouncing ball and the sound of a stick being dragged along the radiators.

There had been no contact between the Ghost Watch Team and the New Year Guests and the latter had no previous "ghost-hunting" interests. The consistency of these reports with respect to the details of the experiences was very significant.

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