Soldiers Point Holyhead, Anglesey, DJI mini 2

Built in 1848, the Soldier's Point Hotel was formerly the residence of the Government contractor. The early Victorian castellated building had two stories, barred windows and curtain wall towers and was faced in stucco. It was constructed in 1849 by Charles Rigby, the contractor for the Holyhead Breakwater, for his own residence. Based on two L-plan structures, the main house faced south-east.
In March 1918, the house’s then owner Lieutenant AF Pearson, chairman of the local magistrates, was charged with hoarding food including rice, jam, and sugar. The charges were dropped after he explained that wounded soldiers were treated to tea at the house every Sunday. It was expanded in the early twentieth century, with a substantial two-storey addition added to the west of the house after 1970. The second L-plan structure were out-buildings with castellations and turrets as per the main house. One of the towers of this screen wall was converted into a pill box during the Second World War.
In the mid-twentieth century circa 1950 it became a hotel but then fell into disuse around the turn of the twenty-first century, having been Grade II listed in July 1994. Plans were afoot to convert the old Victorian home into Holyhead’s Maritime Museum, but these never came to fruition as the direct consequences of fire in September 2011 which took 20 firefighters battling for more than 12 hours to put out the blaze. Since then it has been left as an empty shell.
Down the hill is its smaller sister house. Known as ‘Government House’ it was also built by Mr Rigby circa 1849 for use of Mr Dobson, his resident engineer. It was then used for some years as harbourmaster’s residence before becoming abandoned and falling into disrepair.