Coleg Bala, Including Forecourt Walls and Gatepiers

Coleg Bala is a mid-Victorian college in simple Gothic style, dating from 1867. The building is constructed of snecked, rough-dressed stone with sandstone quoins and dressings, beneath slate roofs. The chimneys have been removed in recent years.

The main facade is symmetrical with 11 bays. It comprises a tall central tower of four storeys flanked by two-storey, two-bay main sections with advanced two-and-a-half storey gabled wings; set back at the ends are two-and-a-half storey, two-bay blocks with hipped roofs.

The square tower rises to four storeys and is topped with a crenellated and machicolated parapet. Plain buttressing extends to the second stage. The first stage contains the main entrance, accessed by a short flight of steps with a modern concrete ramp providing access from left to right. The entrance features a moulded, pointed-arched doorway with label stops in the form of shields, recarved in 1891; that to the left bears the date 1891 together with a scroll inscribed "Schola Theologica". Multi-panel double doors open to internal part-glazed Gothic doors with tripartite arched upper sections. The second stage has a triple cusped lancet group with stringcourse below. The third stage contains a two-light cusped-headed window, and the upper stage has three single lights.

The flanking two-bay sections are divided by stepped buttresses with a plain stringcourse between the floors. Three-light windows within broad pointed arches light each floor; those to the ground are transomed with shouldered-arched heads to the lights, whilst those to the first floor have cusped heads. All windows have plain glazing. The adjoining gabled bays are slightly advanced and feature two-storey canted bay windows with plain two-pane sashes. Modern four-light windows above replace the original two-light arched-headed windows. The end sections are set back with arched entrances to the inner bays containing plain doors and overlights, with single-light windows above. The outer bays have paired windows of plain two-pane sashes throughout, with stringcourse between floors. Each end section has two modern flat-roofed dormer windows to the attic floor, replacing original single gabled dormers.

The rear elevation is asymmetrical. Centrally positioned is a single-storey advanced hall block with steeply-pitched roof and large four-light transmullioned Gothic window; a modern catslide extension has been added in the angle to the right. To the left of this block is a two-storey stair projection with hipped roof and six-light Gothic arched transmullioned window. Further Gothic-style windows of two and three lights light the upper floor of the main block either side of the hall and stair projections. The outer wings have lower advanced sections with hipped roofs and small single-storey modern additions to left and right.

Coped rubble walls front the road on the southwest side and partly define a forecourt area to the southeast and west of the building. Simple gatepiers with plain iron gates stand at the southern corner.

The entrance hall is spanned by a pointed, chamfered arch inscribed with the date 1867 at its apex, with a polychromed tiled floor. An axial corridor runs left to right at the end of the hall, with the hall beyond and the stairwell off to the right. The stair is an open well construction in simple Gothic style with arcaded balustrading.