Old Wardour Castle is a 14thC ruin in Wiltshire that has been in the ownership of the Arundell family since the 1570s. The site was taken into guardianship by the Ministry of Works in 1936 and is today operated by English Heritage. The castle has a noteworthy hexagonal structure that is unusual amongst English castles of its period, as well as surviving fabric from the Renaissance remodelling by Robert Smythson. The castle was ruined during a Parliamentarian siege in 1643, and subsequently abandoned as the family seat in favour of New Wardour Castle – constructed in the Palladian style in the 1760s. After c.300 years as a fortified country residence, it has spent the last c.300 years as a romantic ruin in a carefully composed parkland landscape.

In 2020 Connolly Wellingham Architects were appointed to assist English Heritage with proposals for a new visitor welcome pavilion to replace the outdated and piecemeal existing site facilities. The feasibility design has investigated an appropriate architectural language for the site, sitting quietly in the background of the ruined castle’s extraordinary landscape setting, and joining a varied family of characterful follies across the park.

The pavilion will house ticket sales and retail, back of house staff facilities, upgraded WCs, and a covered seating canopy for picnicking visitors. The arrangement of the elevational colonnade is designed to unfold as visitors enter the site and circulate past the structure – drawing influence from the dynamic views of the castle’s arrested collapse.

Planning Permission, Listed Building Consent and Scheduled Ancient Monument Consent were granted in 2021. Construction works completed in August 2022, and the scheme has been shortlisted for a Civic Trust Award.

Cover image - Ordnance Survey map of Wiltshire. c.1888