Sir Arthur Conan Dolye and Baskerville Hall

(R/C/E/CLY) 

Who and what inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles? The origin of one of his most famous cases is still disputed, with disagreements about how the novel came about. 

Clyro Court near Hay-on-Wye may have been the inspiration for Scottish author Conan Doyle's fictional Baskerville Hall. There is evidence that Conan Doyle knew the Baskerville family who lived there. 

The author's signature appears on a document along with that of an R H Baskerville, believed to be Ralph Hopton Baskerville who inherited the family estate in 1905. 

The deed relates to the sale of two farms to R H Baskerville in the old county of Radnorshire in 1907. Conan Doyle was a friend of the Baskerville family, and was a regular visitor to their home. 

Clyro Court was the family seat of the Baskervilles from 1839 until 1945, when it was sold to Radnorshire County Council and converted into a school.  

The Hound of the Baskervilles is probably the most famous of Conan Doyle's stories about his sleuth, and is mainly set on Dartmoor, Devon.  In the story, the old and noble Baskerville family is threatened by the curse of a large black beast who terrorises and kills any family member who comes to live on the Baskerville estate.