Haunted Hosts

Craig-y-Nos Castle stands as one of Wales's most historically layered properties, with a story that spans Victorian grandeur, medical innovation, and profound human tragedy. The original structure was built in the 1840s as a modest country house, but its transformation began in 1878 when the world-renowned soprano Adelina Patti purchased the estate. Patti was no ordinary owner. Born in Madrid in 1843 to Italian opera singers, she became the most celebrated soprano of her era, commanding astronomical fees and performing before royalty across Europe and America. She invested heavily in Craig-y-Nos, expanding the castle significantly and adding a private opera theatre - a miniature replica of Drury Lane's Theatre Royal - completed in 1891. This 150-seat theatre allowed Patti to perform for intimate audiences of friends and dignitaries without leaving her Welsh retreat. The castle became a hub of high society, hosting luminaries and aristocrats who travelled to this remote corner of Powys to witness private performances by the greatest voice of the age. Patti lived at Craig-y-Nos with her third husband, the Swedish-born tenor Ernesto Nicolini, whom she married in 1886. The couple entertained lavishly until Nicolini's death in 1898. Patti herself died at the castle on 27 September 1919, aged 76. Her body was embalmed in the castle's cellars before being transported for burial at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. In 1922, just three years after Patti's death, the castle was converted into the Adelina Patti Hospital, a tuberculosis sanatorium. For over six decades, the castle served as a place of treatment - and all too often, death - for TB patients, including many children. The sanatorium closed in 1986, and the property underwent restoration before reopening as a hotel and events venue.