Abercynrig

Abercynrig

A house of two storeys and attic, with colourwashed roughcast walls and stone-tiled steep hipped roofs. The building features four tall stone chimneys, each with a stringcourse beneath three square conjoined shafts topped with a cornice. Two chimneys sit on the ridge; the north end has one tall example, while the south end carries a shorter, broader chimney with a large external chimney breast. A deep coved painted eaves cornice runs around the building.

The entrance front displays a centre door flanked by two large sash windows, with two similar but longer windows above. The composition is framed by hipped outer projecting wings, with one comparable window on each floor. The left wing is considerably wider than the right. The windows are renewed 24-pane sashes. Casement pairs occupy the inner returns of the wings on each floor, with the upper examples appearing to be 20th-century insertions. The centre section has two hipped casement-pair dormers. The centre door is recessed within a 20th-century stone-tiled hipped porch with double half-glazed doors and glazed sides. The inner door is set in a late 17th-century oak ogee-moulded frame and has four long arched-headed panels.

According to a 1749 drawing, the original fenestration comprised cross-windows, and a window existed over the porch. The porch was originally open and hipped, and the two dormers were positioned on the eaves rather than in the current location. A 1900 photograph shows no dormers at the centre, suggesting the current dormer arrangement postdates that view. The north end has one renewed ground-floor cross-window, presumed to be typical of late 17th-century fenestration and reportedly moved from above the porch, though if such a move occurred it happened before 1900.

The west front displays four hipped dormers and four similar 24-pane windows on each floor, though the windows of the third bay are not properly aligned. The south side features the large projecting chimney breast. A ground-floor lean-to with a monopitch roof extends westward, topped by a tall square stone chimney. Attached to the south is a flat-roofed 1930s link with later 20th-century glazed lantern connecting to the former granary.

The granary, absent from the 1749 drawing, is a rubble stone range of two storeys and attic, with a slate roof gabled to east and west and an east-end stone stack. An upper-floor window on the north side features stone voussoirs. The west end has a loft door and apex window, both with stone voussoirs. The south side displays two large 20th-century hipped dormers and four upper windows positioned above three ground-floor windows and a door; all are modern uPVC. The east wall is windowless. The east wall of the 1930s link is rubble stone with a coped parapet, two 16-pane sashes with stone voussoirs, and a blocked doorway to the right reusing a 16th or 17th-century segmental-arched chamfered doorway.

The interior plan comprises a large centre hall with two similar staircases, one in each projecting wing. The right wing contains a staircase at its east end and a narrow parlour to the west. The broader left wing contains a former kitchen, now the dining room, and a small study to the east adjacent to a staircase in the southeast corner. The hall had been subdivided but was opened out in 1948 into a single large L-plan drawing room with one window to the east, just north of the front door, and two to the west. This room retains fine early 18th-century panelling, comprising long panels above a panelled dado, a moulded cornice, and two fireplaces. The north fireplace sits roughly central to the longer north wall, while the south fireplace is offset towards the west. Both feature heavy eared and shouldered surrounds with shelves and overmantel paintings depicting classical landscapes and the story of Diana and Actaeon. The shutters, with sunk panels, appear to be late Georgian work. The staircase in the north wing has a moulded string, moulded rail, and turned balusters. The northwest room displays thin 16th-century moulded beams with ovolo and hollow mouldings separated by a step. Two beams cross the room; a third above the window carries mouldings in two runs, suggesting a former centre post. The north wall holds a small 18th-century-type eared fireplace surround. The southwest room, now the dining room, has been modernised; an ogee-moulded beam noted in 1965 and a double ovolo-moulded door frame of the former external doorway have been removed. The study to the southeast is plain, with an adjoining staircase similar to that in the north wing.