Beneath its imposing stone façade, Penrhyn Castle conceals a complex and troubling history.

Constructed in the early 19th century, its grandeur was funded by wealth built on human exploitation. Owned by the Pennant family. Penrhyn exemplifies how profits from slavery shaped Wales’s built environment and industrial development.

Richard Pennant, a staunch anti-abolitionist, amassed his fortune through Jamaican sugar plantations reliant on enslaved labour. That wealth financed infrastructure across North Wales, including the vast Penrhyn Slate Quarry, which dominated the industry for nearly 150 years. The quarry became the focus for social unrest and the longest-running industrial dispute in British history.

Set against the dramatic backdrop of Eryri (Snowdonia), the castle overlooks both the quarry and the port that exported slate worldwide. Today, its gardens and parkland offer a peaceful space for reflection on the legacies of empire, labour, and resistance embedded in its story.