Fri, February 7th, 2020

Lord Milford’s Portfolio of Mystery Castles

Recently a fascinating portfolio of sketches has come into our hands and it has opened up a bit of a mystery that we hope the good people of Pembrokeshire and beyond might be able to help us with.

The story behind the folio is quite interesting. It was purchased in an auction by one of our trustees. The portfolio is from approximately the early 1800s and has Lord Milford’s crest on the front page. His descendants continued to live here so there is a close family connection.

The sketches are of castles and places of interest from across the whole of Britain and Ireland. We are speculating that these sketches were drawn as a personal scrap book of a family member(s) travels.

An example of one is Scarborourgh Castle below.

Some of them are identified but many of them are not and it appears that the portfolio contains the work of more than one hand. The mystery is which castles are they?

Of the sketches that are identified we have drawings from Wales, the Isle of Wight, Northern England, and Northern Ireland. The family had very strong connections with Ireland as well as Wales so perhaps many of them are from there?

Below are a few examples of the unidentified sketches we are hoping that some out there might be able to suggest possible names for castles in the drawings.

This sketch (above) looks like it would be a very large castle with a pair of dramatic drum towers at one end.

Is this sketch (above) of a ruined Irish fortified house? In the portfolio the sketches around this one are identified as places in Ireland. Perhaps this one is also from Ireland?

This sketch (above) looks to be of a classic Norman motte-and-bailey castle with a eye-catching keep. With the flag flying on the keep perhaps it was still in reasonable repair and some sort of possible use?

This semi-ruined castle (above) might be quite recognisable with its location and the bridge?

This one is very interesting and it is reminiscent of Stirling Castle. Perhaps this one is in Scotland or the border country?

If you do have any suggestions of names for these castles we would love to hear from you. Please do get in touch with us at culture@pictoncastle.co.uk