Earlier Houses: The current house is built on the site of Neuadd Lawdden, an earlier Medieval house.

Built / Designed For: William Powell II

House & Family History: Nanteos, which translates from the Welsh as “brook of the nightingale,” is a home famous for once having housed a wooden cup that supposedly possessed supernatural healing powers—nothing less than the Holy Grail itself! Also known as the Nanteos Cup, or Cwpan Nanteos, the mazer drinking bowl, traditionally believed to have been made from a piece of the True Cross, is alleged to have come to Nanteos in the 16th century via monks fleeing King Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. Legend says that the cup came from Strata Florida Abbey (“vale of flowers,” also called Ystrad Fflur), a Welsh Cistercian monastery that was dissolved by the king in the 1530s. The cup, which was at Nanteos until 1952, when it was sold to a private collector (it is today on permanent loan to the National Library of Wales), was said to have been carried to Britain after Jesus’s death by Joseph of Arimathea, who, according to lore, brought Christianity to Britain (recent scientific evidence suggests that the wood from which the cup was made dates from the Middle Ages). It is unlikely that this wooden vessel was used for communion because it’s almost certain that the abbey’s communion cup would have been made of silver, but it’s clear that the wooden cup was used during ceremonies at the abbey. Richard Wagner was said to have been so intrigued by Nanteos’s association with the Grail legend that it inspired him to compose his last work, the 1882 opera "Parsifal." Though it’s claimed Wagner visited Nanteos, there is no evidence of this; it is more likely that George Ernest John Powell, the owner of Nanteos, met Wagner elsewhere and shared the story with him. Nanteos is also reputed to be home to a number of ghosts: the spirit of Elizabeth Powell, who wanders the hallways looking for her lost jewels; the ghost of harpist Gruffydd Evan, who played for the Powell family in the music room every Christmas for 69 years; and a phantom horse and carriage that pulls up to the entrance in the middle of the night. In May of 2004 Nanteos was listed for sale for £1.25 million; it opened as a hotel in 2012.

Garden & Outbuildings: The 30-acre grounds were planted between 1770 and 1850 as part of what was once a 30,000-acre estate, one of the largest estates in Wales. The impressive Grade II-listed stables are extant.

John Bernard (J.B.) Burke, published under the title of A Visitation of the Seats and Arms of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland, among other titles: Vol. I, p. 244, 1852.

House Listed: Grade I

Park Listed: Grade II*

Past Seat / Home of: SEATED AT EARLIER HOUSE: Colonel John Jones, until 1666. Cornelius Le Brun, 17th century. William Powell I, 1705-38. SEATED AT CURRENT HOUSE: William Powell II, 1739-52; The Rev. William Powell, 1752-85; William Edward Powell, 1785-1854; William Thomas Rowland Powell, 1854-78; George Ernest John Powell, 1878-82; William Beauclerk Powell , 1882-1911; Edward Athelstan Lewis Powell, 1911-22; Powell family here from 1738 until 1951. Elizabeth Mirylees, 1951-67. Geoff Bliss, 1967-83.

Current Ownership Type: Corporation

Primary Current Ownership Use: Hotel

House Open to Public: By Appointment

Phone: 01970-600-522

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.nanteos.com/

Historic Houses Member: No