Welsh hotel set for huge refurbishment

Plans to refurbish and then reopen Grade II listed Llangollen’s Royal Hotel in North Wales have been approved by Denbighshire Council.

The iconic 18th century property closed three years ago but is now set to bring jobs – and more tourism spend – to the small town beside the Rover Dee and surrounded by stunning countryside.

The Royal Hotel sits beside one of the attractions, the Grade I listed Llangollen Bridge, named as one of the Seven Wonders of Wales by Visit Britain. Llangollen is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site along 11 miles of canal from Gledrid to the Horseshoe Falls via the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.

Behind the hotel scheme are business partners Tom Bellis and Matt Jones who want to transform it through a £6.5m project. This will see the hotel redeveloped by One Hundred Knights, a company which in recent times has backed other hospitality ventures including the Tyn Dwr Hall wedding venue. There’s a lot of history to preserve here and the future Queen Victoria stayed at the hotel five years before her coronation.

The project will see development of 45-bedroom suites, and it’s thought some 65 jobs plus apprenticeships could result. The aim is to have the hotel reopen by summer of 2023.