Chateau Rhianfa is the sort of building that makes people check their map twice. It stands on the Anglesey shore of the Menai Strait at Glyngarth, between Menai Bridge and Beaumaris, and it looks for all the world as though a French chateau has been picked up from the Loire and set down facing the mountains of Eryri. That is more or less what happened: it was begun in 1849 for Sir John Hay-Williams and his wife Lady Sarah, who had travelled the Loire and come home determined to build something in its image, and the architect Charles Reed obliged with turrets, steep roofs and dormers borrowed from Blois, Chambord, Amboise and Chenonceau.
It was finished in 1851, sold out of the family in 1957 and carved into apartments, and then restored and reopened as a hotel in 2012. The house and its gardens are listed at Grade II*, and the gardens are the making of it — terraces stepping down towards the water, with the Strait below and the peaks of Eryri filling the view across it. Very few wedding venues in Britain have a backdrop of that quality on their doorstep.
The chateau takes up to 100 guests for a ceremony, a reception and a seated meal, with a banqueting hall that makes a proper impression, and 27 bedrooms sleeping around 60 people including a bridal suite. It can be hired exclusively, so the whole chateau, its gardens and its terraces are yours. The kitchen is in-house and flexible, running from a formal wedding breakfast to barbecues and hog roasts, and there is parking, a licensed bar and easy access from the Menai bridges.
Where the band plays
The banqueting hall is the evening room, and like most Victorian interiors of this ambition it is tall, ornate and acoustically lively. That suits a band with some finesse rather than sheer wattage — a four or five-piece will sound full and warm, while a very loud line-up will simply get lost in its own reflections. At 100 guests you are playing to a gathering rather than a crowd, which is exactly the scale at which a good band can work a room properly. Because the building is listed at a high grade, agree staging, rigging and power with the hotel well in advance.
The shape of the day
Days here make the most of the water: ceremony inside or on the terrace, drinks in the gardens with the Strait glittering below and the mountains opposite, dinner, then dancing. Something acoustic outside during the drinks hour is almost obligatory given the view. With 60 guests staying in the chateau, the evening keeps its numbers late rather than emptying out to hotels in Bangor. Ask the team to confirm your finish time and any restrictions on amplified music, in particular outdoors on the terraces, since a listed house on an exposed shoreline will have a view on how far sound carries.
Bands available in North Wales and perfectly at home in a venue like this.
More live music in North Wales.
- North Wales Wedding Bands
- North Wales Events Bands
- Tribute Acts in North Wales
- Wedding DJs in North Wales
- Corporate Entertainment in North Wales
Worth reading before you book: Sound Limiters at Venues: What You Need to Know. More questions answered on our England & Wales FAQs.