These old photos of the I’m A Celeb castle show how much it’s changed over the years

Just look at that staircase

3 years ago

Everyone seems to be pretty happy with the new setting of I’m A Celeb this year, and it’s easy to see why – what’s not to love about a ginormous decrepit haunted castle in the middle of the Welsh countryside? Ant and Dec have already given us a few morsels of information regarding the castle, including that it was only built around 200 years ago, but it’s hard to see how it originally looked from the bare stone and shattered windows. Well, there are a load of old photos showing what the castle used to look like and…wow.

Not so long ago this place was suuuper nice, with marble stairs, grand chandeliers and paintings adorning the walls. It’s a shame that the castle was left to fall into a state of such disrepair, but luckily there’s a 15 million pound restoration in the works – in the meantime, let’s take a look into what the castle originally looked like.

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Probably the most recognisable part of the castle, when compared to the old photos, is the grandiose staircase and as you can see it has been left to become seriously dilapidated.

None of the nice carpeting, paintings or chandeliers are visible anymore as the path up looks especially dark and gloomy on I’m A Celeb.

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The banqueting halls used to be a particularly nice part of the castle where the family would presumably stuff themselves with plentiful amounts of food with visitors.

The banquet hall nowadays, while less posh and made up than it was before, doesn’t look nearly as beaten up as some other parts of the castle such as the stairs.

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The castle was put up for auction in 1946 by the Dundonald family, who had lived there for nearly 100 years. It was sold for £12,000 to a man named Mr JR Rennie, which is over £400,000 in today’s currency.

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After various attempts to turn the castle into a hotel or tourist attraction, it eventually degraded to the condition that we see it in today.

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According to Dr Mark Baker, who spoke to WalesOnline about when he first visited the castle, the most recent inhabitants were squatters: “I then remember going back a few years later after and it was like a nuclear fallout.

“There was used needles, abandoned vehicles and fire damage. It was an apocalyptic scene. I just thought that someone has got to do something here.”

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Although the condition of the castle has deteriorated over the years, the castle responded to a comment on one of their posts implying that they’re going to refurbish the castle, including the staircase.