Dolphin
Sleeps 4
Room Layout
Double Room Twin Room
Bathroom Kitchen - Diner
Lounge View pdf of Room Layout
Location
Dolphin Cottage is located on the Cliff Side by Government House, with views overlooking the Hotel Portmeirion and Estuary. Views from other end are of the Central Piazza. Dolphin is reachable via some outside stairs, leading from Prisoner Shop on Battery Square. Parking is on Salutation Square, by the Cadwalader's Ice Cream Shop.
History
Dolphin (1933-34, listed Grade II 1971) was designed in July
1933 although its name had previously briefly been chosen for the
Angel but as Clough needed an excuse to use an attractive Angel
sign he crossed out Dolphin on the plan/ He had several carved
dolphins also however and so these were used on this building.
Dolphin is a self-catering cottage sleeping four. Below it is
Dolphin Suite which is a serviced suite (double bedroom, bathroom,
sitting room). Dolphin is reached via a flight of steps down from
Battery Square or up from the Dolphin wishing well. A loggia at
first floor level connects Dolphin to Government House. Leaning
over its seaward balcony is a ceramic bust of Shakespeare best seen
from the quayside.
A carved Portland stone figure of the goddess Friga executed
between 1728 and 1730 by Michael Rysbrack (1694-1770) stands on an
integrally carved square plinth inscribed 'FRIX', and a square
limestone pedestal. Lord Cobham commissioned Rysbrack to deliver
seven statues representing the Saxon gods who gave their names to
the days of the week for a rustic temple for his gardens at Stowe.
This figure was in situ here by at least 1928 and gives her name to
Friday Lane past Mermaid. Clough writes that she was "a prize I
secured at the last sale at Stowe when I was engaged in converting
that great palace into a public school. There had been a circle of
seven such deities severally representing the days of the week, but
at a much earlier sale the then Duke of Buckingham, a most splendid
bankrupt, had sold off the other six, leaving only mine - who,
representing Friday, was presumably deemed unlucky and attracted no
bidders."
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