Homes and Property

A fairytale home for William and Kate

With no time to house hunt before their London wedding, Anthea Masey finds the royal couple a fairytale castle only five minutes from William's RAF base
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The remote and beautiful Isle of Anglesey, off the North Wales coast, is about to become one of Britain’s most fashionable destinations.

Helicopter pilot Prince William’s RAF sea rescue base is on the island and he and Kate Middleton, who announced their engagement yesterday and are set to marry next year, plan to live nearby.

Top of their house-hunting list will surely be Plas Rhianfa, overlooking the Menai Strait and close to the chic little seaside village of Beaumaris.

With its circular turrets and mullioned and oriel windows, Plas Rhianfa seems tailor-made for a future king and his new princess. On a steep wooded slope above the sea with views to the mountains of Snowdonia, it would look at home in the Loire Valley.

There is more than enough room for the couple to entertain their friends and family in style. As well as 16 bedrooms there’s a fine banqueting hall, painted ceilings, tennis courts in the terraced gardens and sailing at the nearby Royal Anglesey Yacht Club. And the house has its own gatehouse, so privacy is guaranteed.

Built in the 19th century for Sir John Hay Williams, descendant of Sir William Williams who built Bodelwyddan Castle, it was designed by the prominent Liverpool architect Charles Reed and stayed in the Williams family until the Thirties, when it was given as a wedding present to a local doctor. And the price? That’s £2.35 million.


For more homes in the area, visit handp.findaproperty.com/to-rent/anglesey.gosport.hampshire/properties.



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