Llanharan House

Llanharan House is a Georgian country house of substantial size and architectural quality, comprising a three-storey five-bay central block with hipped roof flanked by lower two-bay pedimented wings brought forward. The main elevations are faced in ashlar, while the service wings and rear are roughcast. The roofs are slate, with mainly roughcast chimneys.

The central block and wings feature a moulded cornice with dentil frieze to the main elevations. The central pedimented doorway is a principal feature, with Tuscan columns on vermiculated bases and double half-lit panel doors with small-pane glazing incorporating lozenges. Above the doorway is a semi-circular radial-glazed overlight. All windows are set under flat arches with projecting keystones: the lower and middle storeys have twelve-pane sashes (shorter in the middle storey), while the upper storey has shorter six-pane sashes. A continuous string course runs at middle-storey sill level. The wings contain similar twelve-pane sash windows, though the west wing has its upper storey windows set above the level of the string course.

The return wall of the west wing facing the lawn and terrace shows two distinct building phases. Towards the front is an added canted two-storey bay window with French windows to the lower storey, and a lower three-bay extension set back to its left. The east wing's roughcast side wall features stone steps descending to a cellar with a service doorway beyond, sash windows in the middle storey, and four sashes in brick surrounds in the upper storey.

The rear elevation is dominated by a central stair hall top-lit by a glazed dome cupola, flanked by added service wings: an outshut roof on the left side and a three-storey gabled service wing to the right with sash windows. A further service wing set back at right angles has a hipped roof with stone ridge stack and sash windows.

The interior is symmetrically planned around an entrance vestibule leading to the circular stair hall. The principal interior feature is a full-height geometrical stairway with cantilevered treads with shaped ends and plain balusters. The principal rooms are arranged ensuite and include the drawing room and library in the central block, a great dining parlour in the west wing, and a dining room in the east wing. Passages from the stair hall also give access to the main rooms and service rooms to the rear.

Neo-classical details predominate throughout, dating mainly from an early nineteenth-century remodelling. Doorways feature reed-moulded surrounds with swags to the entablatures beneath cornices, with panelled reveals and fielded panel doors. The rooms have decorated friezes below moulded cornices and marble fireplaces. Windows retain panelled reveals to floor level and panelled shutters.

The great dining parlour is the most richly decorated room. It contains a fireplace with fluted frieze and pilasters. Its ceiling, added in 1897-8, has heavily moulded ribs of fruit and flowers with a cornice of modillions and paterae. The French windows in the bay have architraves similar to those of the doors.