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Hopes I'm A Celeb castle revamp will boost tourism

Getty Images The outline of Gwrych Castle is seen from below, with turrets and high thick walls. It is surrounded by thick woodland. Getty Images
Gwrych Castle in Abergele hosted the ITV show in 2021 and 2021 during the Covid pandemic

The north Wales castle that hosted ITV's I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! could see major upgrades that organisers hope will see it become a major tourist draw and employer in the area.

The trustees of Gwrych Castle in Abergele have applied to Conwy council for permission to carry out major restoration work, including a new roof and floor.

Dr Mark Baker, chairman of the Gwrych Castle Trust, said the work would see the "building of international importance" host weddings, exhibitions and holiday lets.

The Grade-I listed building, which was the setting of the hit show in 2020 and 2021, is among the most at-risk historical buildings in Wales.

The trust has received £2.5m for the planned restoration work, most of it from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

Dr Baker said the entire project could cost about £10m and take five years, and that a team of conservation architects has been brought in to reinstate the castle close to its original design.

"There has been a huge amount of historic research into what the interiors looked like," he said, adding that emergency repairs were conducted for I'm A Celebrity, but the plan is for permanent changes to be made.

Describing the project as "huge" for Abergele and north Wales, he said it could employ 200 people during the summer months.

PA Media Ant and Dec smiling at the camera in Gwrych Castle. Behind them is stonework and greeneryPA Media
Ant and Dec welcomed contestants to Gwrych Castle for two seasons of I'm A Celebrity, instead of the show's usual home in the Australian jungle

He said there are plans for the ground and first floors to be public spaces that could be used for weddings, while it would also look to partner with galleries to hold exhibitions. The other floors would be holiday lets.

"It will bring a lot of tourists and provide a lot of jobs," he said, describing it as "one of the largest restoration projects in Britain".

Dr Baker said conservationists had discovered a "medieval structure" dating back 600 or 700 years that they did not previously know about.

"It looks like it was a timber-framed manor house. It was basically subsumed by the Georgian house," he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The Gothic-style castle was built between 1812 and 1822 by a wealthy local figure, Lloyd Hesketh Bamford-Hesketh, as a memorial to his mother's ancestors, the Lloyds of Gwrych.

As well as being used for I'm A Celebrity… it also provided a place of safety for about 200 Jewish children during World War Two, and was the training ground for boxer Randolph Turpin, who overcame the formidable Sugar Ray Robinson to win the world middleweight title in 1951.