Kinmel Hall: 'Welsh Versailles' sold at auction for £950k

The building has become run down after lying empty for years

Dilapidated Kinmel Hall has been sold at auction for £950,000 after concerns were aired about its future.

The guide price was £850,000, but the new owners will need far more to protect and restore the building.

Auctioneers Allsops said the buyer of the so-called Welsh Versailles, in Conwy, was local.

The Friends of Kinmel Hall, who are dedicated to seeing the Grade I listed building saved, followed the online auction.

They said only three bidders tried to buy the building, near Abergele.

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For the last 10 years, Acer Properties Ltd, registered in the British Virgin Islands, has owned the building but done nothing with it.

There had been growing concern its condition was rapidly worsening.

Conwy council has faced criticism for not taking tougher action against the owners for not protecting the structure.

The current building dates from the 1870s.

It was built by the Hughes family using money generated by copper mining on Anglesey.

The family only occupied the building for a couple of generations before it was leased out and became a girls school.

The building underwent extensive rebuilding work in the 1970s following a fire.