Plas Isaf

Plas Isaf is a large, symmetrical three-window house of the early 19th century, with two-storey main block and attic, accompanied by two rear wings. The front is rendered over stone, with a shallow slate roof and two stone stacks set behind the ridge. The outer bays of the front are gabled and slightly projected, each with an open pediment. String courses mark each storey. A central recessed round-arched entrance is sheltered by a later open porch with half-timbered sides and a flat, leaded roof. A part-glazed panelled door with a three-pane overlight and side-lights are behind the porch. Flanking the doorway are full-height bay windows with flat, leaded roofs, likely built at the same time as the porch. These windows have continuous small-pane glazing with opening lights to the top. First-floor windows are hornless sashes with a 3-over-6-pane configuration, side-lights, and recessed arches: segmental over the outer bays and round-arched in the centre. Small, round-arched sash windows are set within blind arches in the attic gable.

The north end of the house has a three-bay gable-end façade with canted angles. An open pediment surmounts the gable, interrupted by a high blind arch to the upper storey, with the string courses continuing from the front elevation. All openings are under recessed round arches. A blind arch sits centrally on the ground floor, flanked by tall 6-over-9-pane sashes with side-lights. The first floor mirrors this arrangement, with 12-pane sashes and side-lights. The canted north-east angle displays a date, 1804, on the attic storey, alongside a cast iron downpipe. The south end of the house has a hipped roof and a 20th-century window in the attic storey, alongside a 6-over-9-pane sash under a recessed round arch slightly left of the first floor. An earlier house adjoins below.

The rear of the house features contemporary full-height wings to the outer bays, and a tall, round-arched stairlight in the central bay. A smaller 20th-century window is located to the left of the stairlight, which is topped by a wide gabled attic dormer with a semi-oculus. The canted north-west angle connects with the gable end of the north wing. Each wing has a semi-oculus to the attic within a blind round arch and a pair of windows on the first floor; the north wing has cross-windows with large panes, while the south wing’s windows are blind, with a very small four-pane window between them. The ground floor of each wing features a large window under a recessed segmental arch with small-pane glazing. Single 20th-century windows are present on the inner returns of both wings. A gabled porch, forming a rear entrance, is situated to the left of the north wing, with a half-glazed boarded door on the right return and a 20th-century small-pane window on the front, above a bell. A single-pitch range adjoins at right angles to the left, with a central boarded door flanked by 20th-century windows.

An earlier farmhouse, modernized in the 1950s with the insertion of large plate-glass windows and dormers, adjoins the south end of the house and extends west. The interior was not accessible at the time of inspection.