View allAll Photos Tagged Conceal
... Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.
"Khalil Gibran"
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My Salt Cellar ... :)
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ARTWORK/PHOTO ART is the topic for 28th July 2011
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Cadets from 1st Regiment, Advanced Camp, completed the field training exercise at Fort Knox, Ky., June 26, 2023. During the field training exercise, Cadets did a platoon ambush. A platoon ambush is a surprise attack from a concealed position on a moving target. Photo by Thaliya Martinez, Olivet Nazarene University, CST Public Affairs Office
I hadn't noticed the reflective side on the bee's knee until I looked at this shot on the computer...... To be honest it looks like the blade of a knife (please view large), and now I'm wondering are these guys as harmless as some would make out.... LOL LOL
I do love being able to capture these kinds of photos though. I have such a fear of bees and wasps, but following them around with the 300mm zoom lens makes it a little easier :)
I'm sure someone will see this and explain what the reflective panel actually is - I'm guessing its the empty pollen sack?
Have a great Monday everybody. Another day off work makes it a really great one for me :)
Dundalk Docks Co.Louth
14-08-2020
Limosa limosa
Guilbneach earrdhubh
Red Godwit, Small Curlew
[order] Charadriiformes | [family] Scolopacidae | [latin] Limosa limosa | [UK] Black-Tailed Godwit | [FR] Barge à queue noire | [DE] Uferschnepfe | [ES] Aguja de Cola Negra | [IT] Pittima reale | [NL] Grutto
Status: Winter visitor from Iceland. Numbers remain high throughout the winter, especially September.
Conservation Concern: Amber-listed in Ireland as the majority of Black-tailed Godwits winter at less than ten sites. The European population is considered to be Vulnerable, due to past and present declines in key populations, such as the Netherlands and Russia.
Identification: Very similar in size and shape to Bar-tailed Godwit, but the slightly longer, straighter bill, neck and legs give it a more elegant appearance. Winter plumage is a similar greyish brown to Bar-tailed, but generally plainer, with less dark-centred feathers, especially on the wings. In flight, the similarities between the godwits disappears - Black-tailed shows a striking contrasty upperwing - mostly black with bold white wingbars, a square white rump and a black tail (Bar-tailed has quite uniform brown wings and a long white rump which extends well up the back forming a white wedge). Summer plumaged or moulting birds often occur, showing varying amounts of rich orange. Typically wades in shallow water on tidal mudflats - favours the inner, more silty parts of estuaries and inlets. Can occur in large flocks of several hundred birds.
Call: Described as loud 'wicka' repeated three times.
Diet: Visual and tactile feeders - feed on a range of invertebrates, including bivalves, polychaete worms and shore crabs. Prefer to feed on muddier estuaries, but also feed in brackish pools and on nearby rough pasture. While on pasture, they feed on the larvae of crane fly (Tipulidae) and on the amphipod Corophium volutator. They have also been recorded feeding on grain in stubble fields on the Wexford Slobs.
Breeding: Breed in lowland wet grassland and marshes. Nine breeding sites were identified in Ireland during the last breeding atlas. More recently, birds were present during the breeding season between 1996 and 1999 inclusive, though breeding was not proven.
Wintering: Winters in a variety of habitats, both inland (particularly grassland and river deltas) and coastal (particularly estuaries), though seldom seen along non-estuarine coast.
Where to see: Little Brosna Callows in County Offaly, Shannon & Fergus Estuary in County Clare, Cork Harbour in County Cork, Dundalk Bay in County Louth and Ballymacoda in County Cork support highest numbers (1,000-3,000 birds).
spanwidth min.: 63 cm
spanwidth max.: 74 cm
size min.: 37 cm
size max.: 42 cm
Breeding
incubation min.: 22 days
incubation max.: 24 days
fledging min.: 0 days
fledging max.: 0 days
broods 1
eggs min.: 3
eggs max.: 4
Physical characteristics
Close in body size and wing length to Bar-tailed Godwit but taller with longer legs and straighter, longer bill. Large rather graceful wader, with long bill on relatively small head, long neck, and long legs. Ground-colour of fore-body mainly dull pink-chestnut in summer, paler grey-brown in winter; white ‚stern‘ more obvious than in Bar-tailed Godwit. Flight pattern unique in waders of west Palearctic: wings have bold white wing-bar above and broad white lining below, and large white area of rump and tail-base contrasts with dark lower back and wide black terminal tail-band.
Habitat
Breeds in upper middle latitudes, both oceanic and continental, mainly in lowland temperate and boreal zones, avoiding frozen, arid, mountainous or rocky, wooded, cultivated, or built-up areas, and parts of wetlands with tall dense vegetation, or submerged except under very shallow water. Originally, doubtless confined to habitat types like those still used in Iceland: vast marshy hummocky moorlands often with extensive growth of creeping dwarf birch, or grass marshes and damp meadows, boggy grassy lake shores, or damp grassy depressions in steppe. In northern Scotland, damp moorland and blanket bog still occupied, and in Netherlands locally on damp heathland. Over past 2 millennia, however, widespread deforestation and pasturage have created extensive new open habitats, often under farming regimes. Some of these now form main breeding areas. Reclaimed areas subsequently reverting to poorly drained pastures, or to damp heaths free of scrub, or other waterlogged marginal farmland, or borders of reedy wetland are of primary importance, but other grasslands managed as meadows, especially when grazed in spring, cut for hay in late summer, and flooded in winter. Young led away after hatching, and once fledged may shift to distinct habitat at some distance, including sewage farms, lake margins, tidal marshes, and mudflats. These and sheltered coastal inlets favoured throughout non-breeding season.
Other details
Limosa limosa is a widespread but patchily distributed breeder in eastern and parts of north-west Europe, which holds more than half of its global breeding population. Its European breeding population is relatively large (>99,000 pairs), but underwent a large decline between 1970-1990. Although the species was stable or increased in several countries—notably Iceland—during 1990-2000, key populations in the Netherlands and Russia continued to decline, and the species underwent a large decline (>30%) overall. Consequently, it is evaluated as Vulnerable.
This wader inhabits the boreal, temperate and steppe regions of Eurasia. The Icelandic population amounts to about 5000-15000 breeding pairs. It is wintering in the British Isles and seems to be slightly increasing. The continental population of Europe is wintering in West Africa, mainly Senegal and Mali. The birds of the Netherlands and Denmark migrate through the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco. Those of Central Europe migrate through Tunisia and Algeria. A small population is passing through the Balkan Peninsula in order to reach East Africa. Despite the fact that the species has extended its breeding area and increased in some regions, it is overall rather declining. This is largely due to agricultural intensification in Europe and problems in the wintering quarters
Feeding
Chiefly invertebrates; in winter and on migration, also plant material. Food located by touch and sight. Most frequently uses prolonged and vigorous probing, often with head completely immersed. Typically, whilst slowly walking forward holds head down with vertical or almost vertical bill making small exploratory probes, then suddenly probes deeply and pulls out prey, usually swallowing it immediately.
Breeding
Egg-laying from mid-April. Iceland: laying begins late May. One brood. Nest built on ground in short or fairly short vegetation. It can be more or less exposed or just concealed by plants. Nest is a shallow scrape, diameter 12-15 cm, depth 2-6 cm, lined thick mat of grass stems, leaves, and other available vegetation. Clutch size 3-4, rarely 5, incubated for 22-24 days. Young fledge after 25-30 days.
Migration
Migratory. West Siberian and European race, nominate limosa, winters in part in southern Europe and south-west Asia, but mainly in Africa north of Equator; Icelandic race islandica winters in western Europe. Essentially a freshwater and estuarine species, with broad-front (often overland) migrations characterized by long flights between relatively few staging sites and wintering areas. Large numbers of non-breeding birds summer south of their breeding ranges. Departures from breeding grounds begin late June, with major exodus in July, and principal passage through Europe mid-July to September. Return movement begins February. In north-west Europe, numbers increase during February and March, and breeding sites reoccupied mid-March to mid-April; April to early May in north-east.
Sung Sot Cave @ Halong Bay, Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam
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From www.kbmt.org.uk
The PD3 was the final variant of the Leyland Titan, being the 30ft long version of the PD2 model, introduced in 1956 when double deckers of that length on 2 axles were first permitted. In usual Leyland practice, the chassis type code indicated the particular combination of specification, the PD3A/12 featuring the Leyland 0.600 engine, air brakes, pneumocyclic gearbox and a concealed radiator.
By the late 1960`s the rear engined bus had become very popular because of the ease with which it would accept bodywork capable of one person operation and thereby also attracting government grants. The grants were largely aimed at persuading operators to modernise their fleets and naturally most operators took advantage of the scheme. The result of this trend was a decline in the demand for traditional front engined chassis, and fewer and fewer were ordered. In 1969 the last of a long line of Leyland Titans was produced.
In the 1950`s and up to 1964, Bradford had sourced its double deckers from AEC. The 1966 deliveries were Daimler CVG6s but in 1967 Bradford strangely ordered its first PD3s at the same time as taking its first rear engined double deckers, which comprised both Leyland Atlanteans and Daimler Fleetlines. These two models again featured in 1968 deliveries but for the 1969 double deck intake, PD3s were again specified, the batch comprising 15 buses numbered 301 - 315, These were among the last PD3s delivered, being concurrent with a batch for Stockport, an export order for India, and two (including the very last) for Ramsbottom.
When new in April 1969, 309 was allocated to Bankfoot depot and ran on the Manchester Road and City Circle routes. On formation of the West Yorkshire PTE it was renumbered 2309 and later transferred to the Hall Ings (Interchange) depot on its opening in 1977. It continued in service with the PTE until May 1984 and passed immediately on withdrawal to the West Yorkshire Transport Museum, where it was restored to original condition and livery. It was acquired by Keighley Bus Museum from the administrators of Transperience in September 1998 with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Science Museum PRISM Fund and Bradford Metropolitan Borough SNL801.
Bradford had acquired earlier batches of Regent V all with Metro Cammell bodies, in small numbers in 1959 (15), 1961 (5) and 1962 (10) and in larger numbers for trolleybus replacement in 1963 (60) and 1964 (30), these buses being numbered 106-225, a total of 120 buses. This period saw the closure of trolleybus routes to Bradford Moor (1962), Crossflatts (1963). Bolton - Bankfoot (1964) and Eccleshill (1964). Bradford first motorbuses in 1926 had been AEC's and Regent IIIs and Vs were bought regularly between 1947 & 1964.
By the late 1950s a move was being made away from the traditional rear entrance open platform for two major reasons. The most important of these was safety. Later the entrance began to appear at the front of the vehicle so that the driver could supervise the platform. The addition of doors also meant that the bus was warmer and at a time was car ownership was beginning to grow. this was considered an important element in the fight to retain passengers.
6220 KW is representative of the Bradford fleet of the early 1960s as by this time about a third of the fleet was of this type. The vehicle was still in service at the formation of the West Yorkshire PTE in 1974, and received fleet number 2220 as a Bradford District vehicle. Due to the increasing difficulty of obtaining spares for AEC vehicles after the company's closure, many of these buses were withdrawn before the end of their expected lives and scrapped in the early 1970s. 2220, however, was retained for use as a mobile mess room for the bus station painting crew and remained in use even after the engine had ceased to function, being towed to site as necessary.
The bus was purchased by the West Yorkshire Transport Museum in 1985 and restored to original condition. It was acquired by Keighley Bus Museum from the administrators of Transperience in September 1998 with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Science Museum PRISM Fund and Bradford Metropolitan Borough Council.
6220 KW: AEC Regent V MetroCammell H40/30F 1964
During the early 1960s, trolleybus operators throughout the country were looking at running costs and deciding that trolleybus operation was becoming too expensive. Routes and systems were gradually closed as opportunity arose and replacement motorbuses were purchased. Bradford in the early 1960s was in the throes of redevelopment and a decision was taken that certain trolleybus routes should be abandoned.
Kungfukitten: wash, blow dry, then curl hair under. Apply liberally Borjois concealer pen under eyes and on blemishes. Swirl on Bare Escentuals porcelain powder. Next add Bare Escentuals blush Glee on the apples of the cheeks. Brush on Stila eyeshadow Heather under brow bone, next apply Cassia to the inner corners of the eyes and contour with Poise. Line eyes with a narrow eyebrow brush dipped in water then rubbed across Poise eyeshadow. Swipe Max Factor mascara across upper and lower lashes. Prime lips with Lip Explosion, then slide on Prescriptives lipstick in Peep Show. Dab Givenchy Amarige Mariage on wrists, behind the ears and between the breasts. Serve piping hot.
This eagle flew directly over me with a fish. It is funny watching them fly as fast as they can back to a tree to eat before other eagles see they have something. They tuck that fish in under their tail feather and conceal it so they aren't pickpocketed by other eagles. Lets see if they Eagles can steal one away from the Patriots today in Superbowl LII. www.troymarcyphotography.com
Stella was hanging close by yesterday, as I worked in the garden. I love how the foliage matches her beautiful green eyes.
Cadets from 1st Regiment, Advanced Camp, completed the field training exercise at Fort Knox, Ky., June 26, 2023. During the field training exercise, Cadets did a platoon ambush. A platoon ambush is a surprise attack from a concealed position on a moving target. Photo by Thaliya Martinez, Olivet Nazarene University, CST Public Affairs Office
There he reclined, resplendent at the front of the stall in the middle of Lille’s gargantuan annual Braderie. His groin appeared to follow me as I walked past, ‘Is he wearing trunks or has someone painstakingly embroidered a wave to tastefully conceal drowning giblets?’
How could I leave him behind? His existence threw up so many questions; Who on earth spent months, maybe even years stitching this hunk? Who is he? He surely can’t have been stitched by a doting mother or grandmother, can one actually purchase this guy as an embroidery kit from an erotic craft shop somewhere called ‘You sexy sew and sew’?!
I imagined the scene; a balding, wealthy, older man in a Paul Smith bathrobe stitching it for his toy boy lover during lonely evenings in his Brighton penthouse whilst ‘Maurizio’ spent the summer as a dickhand on a yacht in the Côte d'Azur.
But by the time he eventually finished the piece, Maurizio had cheated on him - dozens of times, gone bisexual for a week, married a sugar mummy, put on a stone, divorced her, lost the weight, found a new lover at the gym, changed his hair and moved to Paris.
The balding, wealthy older gentleman took the embroidery all the way to the Paris apartment where Maurizio now lived with his black French bulldog, Aubergine and he presented him with the portrait and tried to win him back with his skill at the tent stitch.
Clearly Maurizio was underwhelmed by his lover’s digital dexterity and in due course the tapestry found its way to the Lille Braderie, where I was immediately intrigued as to the provenance of ‘Maurizio’.
I wonder has anyone out there ever been presented with such a gift? Or stitched one? Are there any other ‘Maurizios’ out there, should I build a collection? Will they one day hang in the V&A, part of an exhibition of erotic textiles amongst crocheted codpieces and knitted chastity belts?
The Despenser Retable in St Lukes Chapel is one of the rarest survivals of English medieval art, a complete five-panel altarpiece of late 14th century date hidden for centuries after the Reformation by being used as the underside of a table!
This especially beautiful piece now resides in St Luke's Chapel off the south ambulatory and is in remarkably good condition, with only a small strip along the top of each panel lost (restored in the central panel).The colours are delightfully vibrant, and give a sense of the huge volume of such wonderful things that once enlivened churches across the land, denied us by our turbulent religious history.
Images from a brief revisit to one of my favourite places, Norwich Cathedral, scene of some of my earliest memories and what inspired my interest in church architecture at an early age. There had been some changes since my last visit, with the new hostry building (an empty ruin previously) to the west of the cloister now serving as the main entry for visitors. The weather/lighting could have been better, alas!
Norwich Cathedral is one of England's finest buildings and greatest cathedrals; It is one of the most complete examples of Romanesque architecture in the country (arguably the least altered Norman cathedral), has the second tallest spire in Britain and it's vaulted ceilings contain the largest collection of carved medieval roof bosses anywhere.
Surprisingly for so grand a building it is relatively inconspicuous from the city itself, standing on low ground and concealed within the old Cathedral Close, an enclave of tradition and relative peace apart from the noise of the city beyond it's gates. It's monastic past is much in evidence, particularly the magnificent cloisters, the largest and some of the finest in the country.
As stated most of the building dates from the 12th century and therefore exudes that solid Norman aesthetic, massively built but still graceful and beautiful. The central tower is unusually designed with arcading and windows beneath a double row of oculi, the tapering spire above it is a 15th century addition, aside from this the only major alterations to the ancient fabric externally are the tall 14th century clerestorey and flying buttresses of the choir and the gothic enlargement of various nave and aisle windows, principally the great perpendicular west window that takes up most of the west facade.
The interior is predominantly Norman too, except for the elaborate gothic vaulted ceilings that cover nave, choir and both transepts with a uniform design (originally these higher celings would have been of wood, stone vaults were added in the late medieval period to protect against fire, a job they performed well when the transept roofs were hit by incendiary bombs in World War II). These vaults display an unrivalled collection of narrative roof bosses, carved and coloured with Old & New Testament scenes (mainly in the nave and transepts, the choir bosses are mostly decorated with the emblem of their donor, Bishop Goldwell).
The cathedral has surprisingly few major monuments and sculptures compared to most of it's peers, but does have more exceptional medieval art in it's 14th & 15th century painted altarpieces, the most important being the Despenser Retable in the south east chapel, a unique survivial, hidden from danger during the Reformation & Civil War by being converted to the underside of a table. Further altarpieces here are formed of salvaged panels from redundant city churches. The medieval choir stalls also survive with a full set of carved misericords.
The stained glass by contrast is mostly Victorian and quite mixed (very little medieval glass survives). Striking modern glass by Keith New and John Hayward was installed in the north transept to commemorate the Millennium.
The cloisters to the south of the nave are one of my favourite places, all four walks are covered by yet more vaulted ceilings with over 400 more carved and repainted bosses (lower down and much easier to study than those inside the main body of the cathedral) spanning the long period of the cloister's construction throughout the 14th & !5th centuries.
Norwich Cathedral is special to me as being the subject of my earliest memories, recalling having been taken around the cathedral and cloisters as a 3 year old, which left a vivid impression on me and lead me to pursue an interest in church art and architecture years later, ultimately towards my present career in stained glass. Norwich Cathedral will always therefore have a touch of that nostalgic magic to me.
For more details see the Cathedral website below:-
www.cathedral.org.uk/historyheritage/Default.aspx
For more images and details see below:-
www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichcathedral/norwichcathedr...
This is a shot of Andrea while we took a walk on a path near the town.
Model, mastermind, and choice of outfit: Andrea
Unfortunately this is not a good photo but I have included it because this moth is different to the other concealer moths I have found in the garden.
© All Rights Reserved. This image may not be copied, reproduced, published or distributed in any medium without the expressed written permission of the copyright holder.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY PHOTOS ON BLOGS, PINTEREST OR IN ANY OTHER WAY
[Siepe di Copertura > 对隐瞒绿篱 > Сокрытие живая изгородь > 隠し生垣]
Location: Rostock (Germany), Lichtenhagen.
Subject: This is a detail of the so-called Sunflower Tower, a gigantic condominium built during the GDR era, adorned with big sunflower pictures. There, in 1992 (shortly after the Reunification), it took place a notorious uprising. During the riots, bands of hooligans assaulted the building, wherein the authorities squashed thousands of immigrants (many of them Asian) waiting for the asylum visa and living in precarious conditions. The hooligans were supported by part of the local inhabitants. On the ground floor, beneath balconies as the one depicted, there are recesses where some of those immigrants without dwelling were living. Nowadays, many of those recesses are concealed by hedges as such.
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Buick Invicta 4 door Hardtop (1st Gen) (1959-60) Engine 6600cc V8 Nailhead
Registration Number BSK 866 (Inverness)
BUICK SET
www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/sets/72157623635632257...
The Invicta series was introduced as a full line of body styles for model year 1959 between the entry-level LeSabre or top level Electra models, Available as a 2 or 4 Hardtop, 2 door Convertible and 4 door Station Wagon, and with either a 364 cu in or 401 cu in Nailhead V8 engine mated to a 2 Speed Twin Turbine Automatic or a 3 speed Triple Turbine Automatic. The Invicta continued the tradition of installing Ventiports on the front fenders from the Century.
For 1960 the Invicta was restyled with twin parallel front lights rather than the canted angle lights of 1959, the got concave vertical bars rather than the 1959 square blocks
According to Robin Moore's 1969 book The French Connection, "the 1960 Buick Invicta had a peculiarity in body construction conducive to the installations of...extraordinary, virtually detection-proof traps concealed within the fenders and undercarriage" that made it a popular model for international heroin smugglers
This car appeared at 5/7/2015 Can-Am Car Club of Devon gathering at Cofton Farm Holiday Park, Dawlish, Devon, UK driven in by rock legend Jerry Lee Lewis - Photo by John Southall
www.classiccar-photos.net/images/pf-classic-car/15411.jpg .
Many Thanks for a fan'dabi'dozi 30,767,200 views
Shot 167.11.2014 at The National Exhibition Centre, Classic and Sportscar Show Ref 103-360
A visit to the National Trust property that is Penrhyn Castle
Penrhyn Castle is a country house in Llandygai, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales, in the form of a Norman castle. It was originally a medieval fortified manor house, founded by Ednyfed Fychan. In 1438, Ioan ap Gruffudd was granted a licence to crenellate and he founded the stone castle and added a tower house. Samuel Wyatt reconstructed the property in the 1780s.
The present building was created between about 1822 and 1837 to designs by Thomas Hopper, who expanded and transformed the building beyond recognition. However a spiral staircase from the original property can still be seen, and a vaulted basement and other masonry were incorporated into the new structure. Hopper's client was George Hay Dawkins-Pennant, who had inherited the Penrhyn estate on the death of his second cousin, Richard Pennant, who had made his fortune from slavery in Jamaica and local slate quarries. The eldest of George's two daughters, Juliana, married Grenadier Guard, Edward Gordon Douglas, who, on inheriting the estate on George's death in 1845, adopted the hyphenated surname of Douglas-Pennant. The cost of the construction of this vast 'castle' is disputed, and very difficult to work out accurately, as much of the timber came from the family's own forestry, and much of the labour was acquired from within their own workforce at the slate quarry. It cost the Pennant family an estimated £150,000. This is the current equivalent to about £49,500,000.
Penrhyn is one of the most admired of the numerous mock castles built in the United Kingdom in the 19th century; Christopher Hussey called it, "the outstanding instance of Norman revival." The castle is a picturesque composition that stretches over 600 feet from a tall donjon containing family rooms, through the main block built around the earlier house, to the service wing and the stables.
It is built in a sombre style which allows it to possess something of the medieval fortress air despite the ground-level drawing room windows. Hopper designed all the principal interiors in a rich but restrained Norman style, with much fine plasterwork and wood and stone carving. The castle also has some specially designed Norman-style furniture, including a one-ton slate bed made for Queen Victoria when she visited in 1859.
Hugh Napier Douglas-Pennant, 4th Lord Penrhyn, died in 1949, and the castle and estate passed to his niece, Lady Janet Pelham, who, on inheritance, adopted the surname of Douglas-Pennant. In 1951, the castle and 40,000 acres (160 km²) of land were accepted by the treasury in lieu of death duties from Lady Janet. It now belongs to the National Trust and is open to the public. The site received 109,395 visitors in 2017.
Grade I Listed Building
History
The present house, built in the form of a vast Norman castle, was constructed to the design of Thomas Hopper for George Hay Dawkins-Pennant between 1820 and 1837. It has been very little altered since.
The original house on the site was a medieval manor house of C14 origin, for which a licence to crenellate was given at an unknown date between 1410 and 1431. This house survived until c1782 when it was remodelled in castellated Gothick style, replete with yellow mathematical tiles, by Samuel Wyatt for Richard Pennant. This house, the great hall of which is incorporated in the present drawing room, was remodelled in c1800, but the vast profits from the Penrhyn slate quarries enabled all the rest to be completely swept away by Hopper's vast neo-Norman fantasy, sited and built so that it could be seen not only from the quarries, but most parts of the surrounding estate, thereby emphasizing the local dominance of the Dawkins-Pennant family. The total cost is unknown but it cannot have been less than the £123,000 claimed by Catherine Sinclair in 1839.
Since 1951 the house has belonged to the National Trust, together with over 40,000 acres of the family estates around Ysbyty Ifan and the Ogwen valley.
Exterior
Country house built in the style of a vast Norman castle with other later medieval influences, so huge (its 70 roofs cover an area of over an acre (0.4ha)) that it almost defies meaningful description. The main components of the house, which is built on a north-south axis with the main elevations to east and west, are the 124ft (37.8m) high keep, based on Castle Hedingham (Essex) containing the family quarters on the south, the central range, protected by a 'barbican' terrace on the east, housing the state apartments, and the rectangular-shaped staff/service buildings and stables to the north. The whole is constructed of local rubblestone with internal brick lining, but all elevations are faced in tooled Anglesey limestone ashlar of the finest quality jointing; flat lead roofs concealed by castellated parapets. Close to, the extreme length of the building (it is about 200 yards (182.88m) long) and the fact that the ground slopes away on all sides mean that almost no complete elevation can be seen. That the most frequent views of the exterior are oblique also offered Hopper the opportunity to deploy his towers for picturesque effect, the relationship between the keep and the other towers and turrets frequently obscuring the distances between them. Another significant external feature of the castle is that it actually looks defensible making it secure at least from Pugin's famous slur of 1841 on contemporary "castles" - "Who would hammer against nailed portals, when he could kick his way through the greenhouse?" Certainly, this could never be achieved at Penrhyn and it looks every inch the impregnable fortress both architect and patron intended it to be.
East elevation: to the left is the loosely attached 4-storey keep on battered plinth with 4 tiers of deeply splayed Norman windows, 2 to each face, with chevron decoration and nook-shafts, topped by 4 square corner turrets. The dining room (distinguished by the intersecting tracery above the windows) and breakfast room to the right of the entrance gallery are protected by the long sweep of the machicolated 'barbican' terrace (carriage forecourt), curved in front of the 2 rooms and then running northwards before returning at right-angles to the west to include the gatehouse, which formed the original main entrance to the castle, and ending in a tall rectangular tower with machicolated parapet. To the right of the gatehouse are the recessed buildings of the kitchen court and to the right again the long, largely unbroken outer wall of the stable court, terminated by the square footmen's tower to the left and the rather more exuberant projecting circular dung tower with its spectacularly cantilevered bartizan on the right. From here the wall runs at right-angles to the west incorporating the impressive gatehouse to the stable court.
West elevation: beginning at the left is the hexagonal smithy tower, followed by the long run of the stable court, well provided with windows on this side as the stables lie directly behind. At the end of this the wall turns at right-angles to the west, incorporating the narrow circular-turreted gatehouse to the outer court and terminating in the machicolated circular ice tower. From here the wall runs again at a lower height enclosing the remainder of the outer court. It is, of course, the state apartments which make up the chief architectural display on the central part of this elevation, beginning with a strongly articulated but essentially rectangular tower to the left, while both the drawing room and the library have Norman windows leading directly onto the lawns, the latter terminating in a slender machicolated circular corner tower. To the right is the keep, considerably set back on this side.
Interior
Only those parts of the castle generally accessible to visitors are recorded in this description. Although not described here much of the furniture and many of the paintings (including family portraits) are also original to the house. Similarly, it should be noted that in the interests of brevity and clarity, not all significant architectural features are itemised in the following description.
Entrance gallery: one of the last parts of the castle to be built, this narrow cloister-like passage was added to the main block to heighten the sensation of entering the vast Grand Hall, which is made only partly visible by the deliberate offsetting of the intervening doorways; bronze lamp standards with wolf-heads on stone bases. Grand Hall: entering the columned aisle of this huge space, the visitor stands at a cross-roads between the 3 principal areas of the castle's plan; to the left the passage leads up to the family's private apartments on the 4 floors of the keep, to the right the door at the end leads to the extensive service quarters while ahead lies the sequence of state rooms used for entertaining guests and displayed to the public ever since the castle was built. The hall itself resembles in form, style and scale the transept of a great Norman cathedral, the great clustered columns extending upwards to a "triforium" formed on 2 sides of extraordinary compound arches; stained glass with signs of the zodiac and months of the year as in a book of hours by Thomas Willement (completed 1835). Library: has very much the atmosphere of a gentlemen’s London club with walls, columned arches and ceilings covered in the most lavish ornamentation; superb architectural bookcases and panelled walls are of oak but the arches are plaster grained to match; ornamental bosses and other devices to the rich plaster ceiling refer to the ancestry of the Dawkins and Pennant families, as do the stained glass lunettes above the windows, possibly by David Evans of Shrewsbury; 4 chimneypieces of polished Anglesey "marble", one with a frieze of fantastical carved mummers in the capitals. Drawing room (great hall of the late C18 house and its medieval predecessor): again in a neo-Norman style but the decoration is lighter and the columns more slender, the spirit of the room reflected in the 2000 delicate Maltese gilt crosses to the vaulted ceiling. Ebony room: so called on account of its furniture and "ebonised" chimneypiece and plasterwork, has at its entrance a spiral staircase from the medieval house. Grand Staircase hall: in many ways the greatest architectural achievement at Penrhyn, taking 10 years to complete, the carving in 2 contrasting stones of the highest quality; repeating abstract decorative motifs contrast with the infinitely inventive figurative carving in the newels and capitals; to the top the intricate plaster panels of the domed lantern are formed in exceptionally high relief and display both Norse and Celtic influences. Next to the grand stair is the secondary stair, itself a magnificent structure in grey sandstone with lantern, built immediately next to the grand stair so that family or guests should not meet staff on the same staircase. Reached from the columned aisle of the grand hall are the 2 remaining principal ground-floor rooms, the dining room and the breakfast room, among the last parts of the castle to be completed and clearly intended to be picture galleries as much as dining areas, the stencilled treatment of the walls in the dining room allowing both the provision of an appropriately elaborate "Norman" scheme and a large flat surface for the hanging of paintings; black marble fireplace carved by Richard Westmacott and extremely ornate ceiling with leaf bosses encircled by bands of figurative mouldings derived from the Romanesque church of Kilpeck, Herefordshire. Breakfast room has cambered beam ceiling with oak-grained finish.
Grand hall gallery: at the top of the grand staircase is vaulted and continues around the grand hall below to link with the passage to the keep, which at this level (as on the other floors) contains a suite of rooms comprising a sitting room, dressing room, bedroom and small ante-chamber, the room containing the famous slate bed also with a red Mona marble chimneypiece, one of the most spectacular in the castle. Returning to the grand hall gallery and continuing straight on rather than returning to the grand staircase the Lower India room is reached to the right: this contains an Anglesey limestone chimneypiece painted to match the ground colour of the room's Chinese wallpaper. Coming out of this room, the chapel corridor leads to the chapel gallery (used by the family) and the chapel proper below (used by staff), the latter with encaustic tiles probably reused from the old medieval chapel; stained and painted glass by David Evans (c1833).
The domestic quarters of the castle are reached along the passage from the breakfast room, which turns at right-angles to the right at the foot of the secondary staircase, the most important areas being the butler's pantry, steward's office, servants' hall, housekeeper's room, still room, housekeeper's store and housemaids' tower, while the kitchen (with its cast-iron range flanked by large and hygienic vertical slabs of Penrhyn slate) is housed on the lower ground floor. From this kitchen court, which also includes a coal store, oil vaults, brushing room, lamp room, pastry room, larder, scullery and laundry are reached the outer court with its soup kitchen, brewhouse and 2-storey ice tower and the much larger stables court which, along with the stables themselves containing their extensive slate-partitioned stalls and loose boxes, incorporates the coach house, covered ride, smithy tower, dung tower with gardeners' messroom above and footmen's tower.
Reasons for Listing
Included at Grade I as one of the most important large country houses in Wales; a superb example of the relatively short-lived Norman Revival of the early C19 and generally regarded as the masterpiece of its architect, Thomas Hopper.
Ice Tower - you can go up it to the first floor.