Foundation Conservation

Launched this weekend is the Ruthin Castle Conservation Trust, which is now recognised as a fully charitable organisation. It will allow access to public money for restoration in a way not open to the hotel, as a business. Its aims are simple and they deserve the backing of every Ruthinian: to restore and conserve the monumental medieval remains of the castle for future generations and to allow access to the site for townsfolk and visitors.

Because, let's face it, in spite of a long history between castle and town, whether the monument or the Victorian home of the Cornwallis-Wests, few in town enter the castle's grounds or are even concerned about it. It may as well be in Albania. The castle has become invisible to us.

And, crucially, unless visitors stay on site, they probably have no idea of what's on offer and how superb it is. It's contemporary with the more well-known Edward I examples (e.g. Conwy). Just think how a renovated castle might attract visitors. At the launch this afternoon, the mayor was therefore quite right when he described it as "exciting" and "the biggest thing that has happened in Rhuthun/Ruthin for a very long time". Its potential as a tourist 'pull' is huge and it considerably overshadows Nantclwyd y Dre, the Craft Centre and the Old Gaol. Indeed, add all four together and you really have something. The mayor referred to the monument as "hidden way, degrading and inaccessible". The trust wants this to change.

That there's been no comprehensive conservation work of the archaeological remains of the castle seems strange.

The castle was built from either 1277 or 1282—we apparently do not know when it was actually started—at the behest of English conqueror king Edward I. At that time, the castle was an integral part of the town. Actually, the king's favourite, de Grey, set about taking over both the town and the landscape, which included a number of hunting parks within a wide radius of the town.

Also included in the trust's responsibility are the Ladies' Walk, part of which is leaning alarmingly, to the left, and the dovecote & clocktower...

The hotel was built as an opulent home from 1828 and it followed a fashion for establishing picturesque gardens with bucolic views with either folly or actual ruins within. In Rhuthun's case, there were plenty of ruins within the curtain wall of the castle.

... and footbridge

That curtain wall is constructed of limestone and sandstone. The Victorian house builders added to the wall by completing log collapsed parts of it. Little has been undertaken subsequently. As a result, the walls are in a profoundly poor state. Clad with vegetation including large trees and with gaps so large it is possible to fit a human head within, the vegetation root systems are worming behind the wall and slowly peeling the masonry off. Water ingress is also causing difficulties. There was, for example, a significant collapse about 18 months ago. There is exposed some of the middle mortar and rubble now that parts of the outer walling has gone. The trust says that the medieval monument is "in danger of imminent, catastrophic and irreversible collapse."

Beneath one of the turrets—medievally intact

The immediate concern is £110,000-worth of work to stabilise the curtain wall. This will buy time in order to search for more funding to complete the project. In 2008, the total repair bill was put at several million. Without help, it will simply keep collapsing. The walls are tall—perhaps 60 feet plus—and they support the listed gardens above. Incidentally, we know not why the gardens are so high. Subject to grant funding, the plan therefore is to remove vegetation slowly, record and repair with sympathetic lime. Cement causes as much damage as the vegetation itself.

Peacock chicks within the grounds

This is a "lost" royal treasure of Wales. It deserves our support. Few of the hundreds at Saturday's and Sunday's events were from Rhuthun itself. Has it become so invisible to us? As the county archaeologist Fiona Gail put it, "it's one of the most important monuments in the UK. It's just at a stage where we can still save it and save that tangible link with our past".

Of of this evening, the conversation trust's page at Buzzbnk had received just £25 of its £110,000 immediate target, thanks to currently the lone supporter Amanda B (who is the project manager).