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Island House, Laugharne

Buildings and structures in CarmarthenshireGrade II* listed buildings in CarmarthenshireLaugharne
Laugharne Castle, Caermarthenshire
Laugharne Castle, Caermarthenshire

Island House is a Grade II* listed, partly Tudor, sub-medieval townhouse located in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, in southwest Wales. It sits below the castle between the two mouths by which the River Corran enters the Tâf estuary, known locally as "Earth Lake" and "Mill Orange". The frontage now ranges along Wogan Street but was formerly set in a walled garden. Built principally of stone, the earliest parts date from the 15th century, with additions from the 16th and 19th centuries. The grading status signifies a building of exceptional interest and it is the oldest residence in the township. The historic importance of whole site is shown by separate listings of its garden, walls and outbuildings.Laugharne was a seaport from the early Middle Ages and the first owners of Island House traded goods from the adjoining Gosport Harbour at the head of the Corran navigation. It could then shelter 350-ton vessels but capability slowly declined as the inlet's tidal prism was reduced by siltation at the basin entrance. Eventually an extensive saltmarsh developed across the foreshore and by 1950 the ancient channels were no longer passable and now only provide moorings for recreational craft.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Island House, Laugharne (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Island House, Laugharne
Wogan Street,

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N 51.7696 ° E -4.4634 °
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Wogan Street 3
SA33 4TB , Laugharne Township
Wales, United Kingdom
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Laugharne Castle, Caermarthenshire
Laugharne Castle, Caermarthenshire
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Castle House, Laugharne
Castle House, Laugharne

Castle House in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, Wales, is a Grade II*–listed Georgian mansion. Described by Dylan Thomas as “the best of houses in the best of places”, it is one of many buildings of note in the medieval township. The house was built around 1730, although remodelled inside and out in the Regency period. It features a three-storey, five-bay facade, with the central three bays projecting slightly. The central doorway is surmounted by a pediment; above it are tripartite windows, with the uppermost one in the Venetian style. A broad cornice on the facade conceals the slate roof. Several wings, lower than the main body of the house, project to the rear, one of which dates to the original 18th-century construction. The interiors are mainly of the Regency period and later but include the only example in Carmarthenshire of a Chinese Chippendale staircase.There were formerly a number of outbuildings to the rear of the house, as can be seen in the first-edition Ordnance Survey County Series map (Carmarthen, XLV.14, 1889), and the grounds of Laugharne Castle were formerly landscaped to serve as the house's garden. Two of the surviving outbuildings have been converted to a bed and breakfast and a restaurant. Although the castle is now in the guardianship of Cadw, its title is still with the house. Until recently Castle House was in the ownership of the Starke family, who had held it since the early 19th century, although it is now the private residence of David Thomas and Abi Thomas, daughter of the local artist David Petersen. The house has long had artistic links, as Richard Hughes wrote In Hazard (1938) while living there, and Dylan Thomas wrote Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (1940) while staying with Hughes.