Gyrn Castle

Gyrn Castle is a castellated asymmetrical three-storey country house built principally of coursed stone with a slate roof. The entrance front faces east.

The entrance comprises a three-window bay positioned right of centre, featuring a coursed stone porch with plain parapet. The porch contains a Tudor-headed doorway with hood mould and double half-lit panelled doors, flanked by half-lit panels under hoods. The porch is framed by large sash windows, with three sash windows in the middle storey and two casement windows in the upper storey. Openings throughout are set under stone lintels. Some windows retain original sashes whilst others are replaced in original openings by small-pane cross windows or T-shaped windows incorporating casements.

Projecting on the right side is a two-window dining room with diagonal buttresses in the lower storey, sash windows in the lower storey and casements in the middle storey and single upper-storey window.

To the left of the entrance bay are two bays incorporated from a 17th-century house, constructed of rubble stone in the lower two storeys. The right-hand bay has two casement windows and the left-hand bay, brought forward, has one casement window. Beyond these is a higher square turret with pyramidal roof and weathervane, featuring a diagonal buttress in the lower storey.

Projecting further forward on the left side of the turret is a double-height picture gallery with hipped roof and clock tower. The ground falls away here, and accordingly the gallery incorporates a basement storey. The gallery contains two casements right of the tower and a single basement window, whilst left of the clock tower is a four-light casement. The six-stage tower has diagonal buttresses to the lower two stages. The lower four stages have casements, with a hood mould in the second stage. The fifth stage contains a narrow vent and arrow loop, with a round-headed window to the rear. The upper stage has round clock faces to the front and rear. The embattled parapet features a higher south-east turret set behind the parapet, with corbelled battlements.

The left gable end of the picture gallery has higher round angle turrets and a central embattled oriel on a V-shaped wall shaft. The basement has casement windows left and right under linked hoods.

The rear of the gallery contains basement openings under stone segmental heads, comprising a panel door with integral two-light casement to its left, then an embattled wall with an opening cut through it screening the service yard from the garden. This is followed by two alternating doors and windows. Further left is the two-window return of the main service wing on the south wall, with openings offset to the right. This retains a hornless sash window on the left side of the lower storey but is otherwise fitted with replaced casements, and a basement boarded door with flanking windows. The rear of the service wing is embattled and clad with scribed roughcast. A lean-to projects from the right side with a gabled dormer, two sash windows and a doorway to the left in a covered walkway. Further left is a flat-roofed projection with segmental-headed sash window offset to the right. The upper storeys contain casement windows and inserted doorways, incorporating a flat in the upper storey. At the left (north) end of the service rooms is an added five-stage square tower abutting the rear of the house. This is roughcast in the lower three stages and rubble stone to the upper stage, with battlements pierced by arrow loops. The lower stages contain sash windows facing south to the courtyard, with two doorways in projections to the lower stage. The west wall has two casements in the lower stage, with single sash windows above.

The right end wall contains a projection off the dining room, above which are two inserted windows and a replaced upper-storey window. Further right are two sash windows under hood moulds lighting the stair, with a replaced stair light below the eaves. The service rooms further right have sash windows.

The principal rooms and main stairway are positioned on the right side of the entrance, probably following the general plan of the 18th-century house, with the gallery on the left side beyond the smaller rooms of the 17th-century house.

The entrance hall contains wall panelling said to have been brought by Sir Edward Bates from his house at Beechenhurst, Liverpool, and a Jacobean-style panelled ceiling. The fireplace features ornate Jacobean-style panelling continuing across the flanking niches. The rooms on the left side of the entrance retain spine beams from the late 17th century and a marble fireplace inserted in the late 20th century. The picture gallery is top-lit and has a five-bay roof with moulded arched braces on corbels and collar beams with queen posts. A flat ceiling in the centre features octagonal panelling. The roof has a moulded cornice. A plain black marble fireplace in the east wall has a wooden surround. The dining room on the right side of the entrance hall contains a panelled wainscot and foliage trails to a panelled ceiling. The room above the dining room has a similar plaster ceiling. Classical doorcases incorporate pilasters and panelled doors. The wooden chimneypiece has double Ionic pilasters and an overmantel with a mirror and round-back niches. The fireplace is positioned in the centre of three blind arches in the north wall. The stair hall, behind the entrance hall and dining room, contains a full-height open-well 18th-century stair with turned balusters at three per tread, wreathed handrail and moulded tread ends. The quarter-turn service stair, behind the rooms with 17th-century detail, has plain balusters.