Llangwyfan-isaf

Llangwyfan-isaf is a two-storey house of irregular plan, facing south-east, with rubble walls rendered in roughcast and boulder foundations. The building is primarily 19th century in external character, though it retains earlier elements including a doorway and several windows in the older sections.

The house developed in stages. The central part forms the original dwelling, to which a gabled storeyed porch was added to the left (south-west) side of the south-east wall in the late 16th century. This porch features a wide central doorway with moulded jambs and square head, topped by a triangular pediment bearing the inscription '1589 OW HW' in the tympanum (badly weathered). Now fitted with a French window, it is lit above by a 4-pane sash window, with a square recess in the gable apex.

To the right (north-west) of the porch, a wing is separated by a single window containing 4-pane sashes on each floor. This wing is broader, with irregularly-spaced windows offset to the left (south-west): a 6-pane sash to the ground floor and a 4-pane sash to the first floor. To the right of the ground floor window, set at higher level, is a small original square-headed window with quarter-moulded jambs, now blocked. A small 4-pane sash appears on the ground floor of the right-hand return, with a similar but larger window to the end range on the right (north-east). In the rear (north-west) wall of the original house, between the porch and the rear dairy, is a blocked square-headed window with quarter-round moulded jambs, half-concealed by later building.

Abutting the north-east gable end of the central part is a single-window range built as a drawing room in the 1830s, probably on the site of an earlier structure. It has a large 20-pane sash window to the ground floor and a 4-pane sash above. The rear (north-west) elevation shows two 4-pane sash windows to the first floor.

An early 19th-century service wing abuts the south-west gable of the central part, with three windows to the ground floor and two to the first floor. All windows in this range are 4-pane sashes with segmental heads. A doorway with shallow rectangular fanlight appears on the north-east end of the rear (north-west) elevation, with a window to its right (south-west), and two first-floor windows to the rear.

A late 19th-century single-storey dairy wing is situated to the rear (north-west) of the central part, forming a two-window range with a central doorway in the south-west wall flanked by 4-pane sash windows. This wing has a brick chimney to its north-west gable end. A lean-to porch stands on the rear (north-west) wall of the central part, north of the dairy wing.

The modern slate roof carries a tiled ridge and coping. Four chimneys serve the main part, three of brick at the south-west gable and along the ridge marking the extent of the original house. An ashlar stack with brick capping stands at the north-east gable.

The original main entrance is no longer in use, with access now gained to the rear. The central part has an axial corridor and rear staircase, with principal living rooms to the south-east and north-east and service wings to the south-west and north-west. The main staircase has a moulded handrail on turned balusters and turned newel posts with globe finials.

The bedroom above the entrance hall on the first floor contains a massive sandstone fireplace with a large stone bressumer detailed with quarter-roll moulds in chamfered angles. The supporting piers are similarly detailed with broach stop chamfers, plain plinths, and damaged capitals (probably once with facial stops). The servants bedroom above the kitchen in the west wing retains its original ornate cast iron fireplace.

The chapel was housed in the advanced wing to the north-east of the porch.