Llanfythin Farmhouse

Llanfythin Farmhouse is a complex, historic building comprising two blocks set at right angles on a raised rocky site, with an enclosed courtyard to its east. The exterior is rendered with local limestone, featuring sandstone dressings, and slate pitched roofs.

The western block dates to the 16th century, with later additions to the north and west. It incorporates medieval masonry in its western wall. The southern block, also seemingly of 16th-century origin, is thought to incorporate the remains of a Norman chapel, with a substantial cellar that may be part of this earlier structure. A kitchen wing was added to the west in the late 18th century. The first-floor ceiling of the southern block was raised, and the upper storey was closed off; the roof structure was replaced, and chimneys rebuilt in brick during this period. The older, southern part of the western block has a slight batter to its east wall. The front (east) elevation features modern windows and doors, with a blocked four-centred arched doorway to the left of the modern entrance. The north gable end and the west wall of the kitchen wing are blank, with a gable end chimney stack. The projecting 18th-century kitchen wing has modern windows on its north wall and a small pantry window in its west gable, with further modern windows above. A modern lean-to extension to the south end of the kitchen wing encloses a formerly external doorway, retaining plain chamfered jambs from an earlier doorway. The south end of the western block features an original two-light sunken chamfered square-headed mullion window without a hoodmould and a lean-to, believed to have originally been a bread house. The south wall of the southern block is heavily battered at its base, with a modern doorway leading to the cellar; large modern windows are present on the ground and first floors. The east gable end features a modern stair window, while a small light with sunk chamfered jambs is set between a small Sutton stone carved tablet depicting three rabbits. The north wall of the southern range has a blocked opening at its east end, with a modern doorway and window above.

The principal room of the western block is divided into three bays by exposed ceiling beams, each with a broad chamfer and run-out stops with fillet. A modern fireplace in the south gable end provides access to a passage leading to the southern block, with a two-centred dressed stone arch featuring keel stops. The southern block remains undivided on the ground floor, with enlarged modern window openings on the south wall. The ground floor contains exceptionally fine, complexly moulded ceiling beams with massive torus moulded fillet and hollow chamfers. Cupboards are built into the north side of the fireplace on the east gable, and a large open fire is present without a surround. A spiral staircase in the south side of the fireplace leads to the first floor, although the second flight to the attic is now blocked. The first floor has been subdivided and modernized. The attic storey of the western range retains a late 18th-century square-headed moulded fireplace surround with a plaster fleur-de-lis and a single Tudor rose on the wall above. The fireplace is flanked by moulded square cupboard frames (now blocked), each with a plaster stylised rose above.