[EPMUK]

G'day. You'll have to excuse me as I'm not an Urbexer as such but I get Google alerts for anything to do with Gwrych and this page cropped up the other day.

As the new owners of Gwrych (since April last year), I just wanted to set the record straight after reading some of the previous posts.

We have taken steps to secure the building with additional fencing and metal shuttering as there are areas of the building which are unsafe and therefore access is pretty much impossible without damaging either fencing or removing the shuttering, which I obviously wouldn't condone.

The current situation is that there is no planning consent regarding the Castle and never has been, we've been in discussions with the Council over the past months and are well progressed with our designs and hope to submit an application later this year. Work on the site won't however commence until we have our consents in place. This in itself could take over a year. Our plans are to convert Gwrych into a high quality destination Country House hotel of approx 70-80 bedrooms with spa and banqueting facilities, expanding on the previous owner's intentions.

I can of course appreciate the attraction of visiting abandoned properties and even admire the work the work you do as Urbexers, half of the battle of bringing derelict properties back into use is raising awareness of the current condition and the risks that the buildings face. In respect of Gwrych I can appreciate the attraction even more as it is without question a stunning building and surroundings. However as a landowner I cannot reiterate more the dangers of entering a building in these conditions without permission and without having any risks identified prior to entry.

On that basis, if any of your members wanted to organise a visit to the Castle I'd be pleased to accompany you. Obviously I can't extend this to individual visits but if you can co-ordinate a number of members to visit on the same day I can show you round.