St Brides Castle

St Brides Castle stands in the community of Marloes and St Brides, Wales; the building seen today was developed for William Philipps in the early nineteenth century.

A long-established house occupied this site before the nineteenth-century rebuilding. In the late eighteenth century an earlier dwelling stood here and by 1811 it was described as a modern and elegant residence that had replaced an older mansion to the west. Local references from that period show the place was known at times as St Brides Hill or simply Hill.

In 1833 the eighteenth-century house was remodelled and expanded for William Philipps (1810–1864), creating the castellated baronial-style mansion that anchors the estate. By 1839 the property comprised some 348 acres. Ownership passed at the end of the nineteenth century when the fifth Baron Kensington acquired the estate in 1899. The house saw a substantial campaign of enlargement between 1905 and 1913 carried out for the sixth Baron Kensington; that phase significantly altered its scale and appearance. The sixth Baron sold the property in 1920.

New uses followed quickly in the twentieth century. In 1923 the building was adapted for use as a sanatorium under the name Kensington Hospital. Late in the century the complex was converted to holiday apartments in 1992. After extensive renovation the present ownership passed to Holiday Property Bond. The principal house has statutory protection as a Grade II* listed building and the designed landscape is registered at Grade II for its special historic interest.