Pen-y-bryn

Pen-y-bryn is a gentry house, likely dating to the early 18th century, with an earlier core. The main two-storey range runs roughly east-west, facing north, with a four-storey circular tower on the west side and a lower, flush wing to the east. Cellars are also present. The main and east ranges are constructed of very roughly coursed rubblestone with buttered pointing, while the tower is rendered in two layers: an original plain clay and plaster render directly on the stonework, covered by a later roughcast render beginning above the present ground-floor level. The roofs are slate, graded to the main range and tower, with coped verges to gable ends and a pendant finial to the conical roof of the tower.

The main range has three symmetrical bays and features a central, two-storey gabled porch, likely formed after 1810 from a former oriel or stair turret, approached by steps with low retaining walls. The porch has a pilastered round-headed entrance arch, a keystone, and double nail-studded plank doors, above which is a two-light mullion window with a dripstone. Narrow rectangular windows with transoms are located on the returns. Dormers with cross-windows break the eaves on either side of the porch, with a three-light mullioned and transomed window on the lower left and a 12-paned sash in a moulded stone surround on the lower right. A square integral end stack is positioned on the left. The tower’s ground floor has an ovolo-moulded cross-window in a cavetto-moulded surround; a smaller timber cross-window is on the first floor, and a three-light ovolo-moulded mullioned and transomed window on the second floor. A large canted window, comprised of three cross-window units, is on the fourth floor, with all but the outer lights having leaded latticed lights like those in the main range. Integral end stacks terminate in stone shafts on the east and west of the tower. The east range has two 12-paned sashes on the first floor and smaller 12-paned sashes directly below, with a substantial integral end stack to the left. The south range has a small, likely 16th-century arch-headed window and a blocked first-floor doorway in the gable end.

While interior inspection was not possible during the survey, the house is believed to retain much of its original plan and several features of interest. A dog-leg oak staircase in the north-east corner of the main range features a massive moulded and swept handrail, turned balusters to the lower flight, and double-square newels with capping. The tower's walls are square internally, possibly due to earlier walls being cut back and refaced. The first floor of an early 18th-century extension has bolection moulded panelling with a cornice.