Locals Plan Royal Love-Nest

A fairytale castle in the Land of our Fathers,which is up for sale for £700,000,has been put forward as a Welsh lovenest retreat for Prince Charles and Camilla.

The Prince of Wales has been urged to spend more time in the country of his title by Welsh thinktank,the Centre of Reform in Wales.

The organisation has earmarked Craig-y-Nos as the ideal home from home for the prince and his paramour,away from prying eyes.

Councillor Gwyn Gwillim said it was a palace fit for a future king."It is a beautiful place which is secure and would suit Charles and Camilla down to the ground.

"If he moved here to Wales,it would boost the valley,which has suffered devastating job losses in recent months."

The castle,built in the 1 840s,was once the home of Madame Adelina Patti and the French tenor Emest Nicolini.

Adelina,an international star with a cosmopolitan lifestyle,lavished £100,000 on transforming the castle - a vast fortune in Victorian times.

After she died in 1919,the castle changed hands many times until it was bought by the Welsh National Memorial Association and later converted into a hospital which closed in 1986.

It was finally sold to private ownership in the late 1980s.Ten years later details of a £10million scheme to restore the site were unveiled.

Plans included restoring the castle and the Patti Theatre and creating a major visitor attraction and opera training centre.

The Dame Gwyneth Jones Patti Trust was hoping for £6.5 million from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and £950,000 from the Arts Council of Wales.

The Welsh-born opera diva,who performed many times in Swansea,gave a commitment to raising the balance.But sadly the ambitious scheme failed to get off the ground.

The castle is now on the books of a Worcester firm of estate agents.

The Mandinam country estate in Llangadog Towy Valley,which is up for sale for £1 million is also being put forward as a possible retreat for the Prince.