Plas Dulas

{{short description|Historic mansion in north Wales}}

{{use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}

{{use British English|date=February 2025}}

{{Infobox building

| name = Plas Dulas

| image = Plas_Dulas_in_the_1930s.jpg

| image_size =

| image_alt = Photograph of Plas Dulas

| image_caption = Plas Dulas in the 1930s, with owner Richard MacGillivray Dawkins and family members

| coordinates = {{coord|53.28775|-3.64136|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

| architectural_style =

| address = Plas Dulas, Llanddulas, Conwy, Wales

| years_built = 1840s

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| demolition_date = 2024

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| owner = Elizabeth Easthope
Richard MacGillivray Dawkins

| height =

| material = Stone; slate roof

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| floor_count = Two-storey

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Plas Dulas was a historic mansion in Llanddulas, Conwy, north Wales, with literary associations.

Plas Dulas stood in the Garthewin estate, as part of a large farm, Llyndir.{{cite web| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/northwestwales/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8388000/8388149.stm | title=Writers drawn to Llanddulas mansion | publisher=BBC | work=BBC News | location=UK | date=1 December 2009 | access-date=14 February 2025 }} In the early 19th century, the Wynne family sold the land to Elizabeth Easthope, daughter of Sir John Easthope, using money from her elder brother's will, after she won a court case with her father. John Easthope was a politician and owner of The Morning Chronicle newspaper. He employed the writer Charles Dickens, who may have been a visitor to Plas Dulas. The house was built around 1840.{{cite web| url=https://coflein.gov.uk/en/site/309221/ | title=Plas Dulas | publisher=Coflein | website=coflein.gov.uk | location=UK | access-date=14 February 2025 }} Elizabeth Easthope also bought her sister and brother-in-law a neighbouring property, Bodhyfryd. They were art collectors, and some of their paintings are now in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

The house was passed on through the family, finally owned by the academic Richard MacGillivray Dawkins. He knew the author Evelyn Waugh, who was a frequent visitor to Plas Dulas and wrote the 1928 book Decline and Fall while staying there in the 1920s. In 1925, Waugh taught at Arnold House, a former nearby private school in Llanddulas, and this inspired the fictional Llanabba Castle school in the novel.{{cite web| url=https://evelynwaughsociety.org/2011/plas-dulas-to-be-demolished/ | title=Plas Dulas to be demolished | publisher=The Evelyn Waugh Society | website=evelynwaughsociety.org | first=Antony F. P. | last=Vickery | date=14 December 2011 | access-date=14 February 2025 }} Dawkins was also a friend of Noel Coward, another visitor to Plas Dulas. Dawkins was interested in Greek plants and created Mediterranean gardens at Plas Dulas.

After Dawkins' death in 1955, the house was bought by a Miss Fekete, a Hungarian and Christian missionary. She used Plas Dulas as a Christian retreat. She died without leaving a will in the late 1990s, by which time the house was in a dilapidated state. The house became derelict in November 1999 and was occupied by squatters, with the idea of creating a community centre. However, they were evicted and the house sold. Attempts to pull down the house for development failed even on appeal,{{cite web| url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-11595520 | title=Houses for Conwy mansion plan turned down | publisher=BBC | work=BBC News | location=UK | date=21 October 2010 | access-date=15 February 2025 }} but eventually the house was demolished in 2024.{{cite web| url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/historic-welsh-mansion-links-charles-28774584 | title=Historic Welsh mansion with links to Charles Dickens reduced to rubble in warning for nation's heritage | publisher=WalesOnline | website=walesonline.co.uk | location=UK | first=Owen | last=Hughes | date=7 March 2024 | access-date=14 February 2025 }}