Plas Dolbenmaen

Cadw's description

Location

The farmhouse stands in the angle formed by the elbow in the old Tremadoc to Caernarfon road, and the recently built by-pass.

History

The house, the site of a princely court and centre of the demesne of Dolbenmaen, was one of only two in the district registered with 2 hearths in the 1662 return. It was probably rebuilt in the late C18 on the same site of long occupation, as indicated by the adjacent fine motte and moat.

Exterior

Built of roughly coursed rubble stonework, with a roof of old small slates, grouted up. The house form is a 4-window bay front with end chimney stacks, a lean-to on the left end (E), and a probable coeval rear wing on the right, also with a gable stack and itself extended by a cat-slide roof to the W. Recessed 12-pane sash windows noted in the former description boarded over at the time of inspection, July 1998, and a small fire window at the left end. Door at the rear, in the angle with the rear wing, has a projecting stone lintel of Caernarfonshire form. Weather coursing to the stacks.

The farm buildings lie to the W.

Interior

Not accessible at the time of inspection.

Reason for designation

Included as a caput house of some importance in the history of the district, of which some early fabric survives, in a substantial C18 vernacular farmhouse.

The motte is a Scheduled Ancient Monument No 11/2080/CN063(GWY).