Converting a Grade II* designated barn into a 21st century visitor centre

Discover how we are sensitively repurposing Tretower Court and Castle’s magnificent fifteenth-century barn into a visitor centre to give a warm and ‘refreshing’ welcome to future visitors and the local community.

At Tretower Court and Castle, home to one of the most powerful Welsh families during the Wars of the Roses, Cadw is about to embark on a challenging project to conserve and convert a Scheduled Ancient Monument into a first-class visitor centre. 

A barn, which originated as a fifteenth-century domestic building, will be transformed to include a new admission’s point for visitors, an office, a retail area, toilets and an exhibition space, but will still retain its external character and appearance. We will also reinstate the original first-floor storey of the building to provide an area for a tea room and a space for local community events. 

The new visitor centre will offer a warm welcome and improve access for visitors to Tretower, replacing the small reception area in the main courtyard. A new lift will also be installed to enable easy access to the first floor of the barn, where visitors will be able to enjoy refreshments and soak up the atmosphere of this rural retreat. 

Stephen Jones, Cadw’s Senior Conservation and Design Services Manager, said

‘It’s a project that you don’t very often get to work on and it’s a privilege to do so. The design process has been very challenging as we have tried to get the right layout to address the needs of Cadw and our visitors, whilst ensuring that the new plans adhere to Cadw’s Conservation Principles’.

This article was first published in Cadw's members' magazine in June 2020