Tan y Pistyll Restaurant

Cadw's description

Location

Close to the waterfall of Pistyll-y-rhaeadr.

History

The first shelter or cottage for the convenience of visitors to the falls was set up by Dr Worthington, the vicar, and is refered to in Pennant's Tour of Wales: Pennant implies it was built at a date between his visit (1776) and the date of his book (1778). The vicar (d.1778) also promoted a turnpike road to the falls.

The top part of the Afon Rhaeadr valley was part of the Wynnstay Estate, and before 1840 Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, the fifth baronet, altered or rebuilt the cottage to its present form. It is marked on the Tithe Survey (1839) as 'house, garden and cae pistyll' owned by Sir Watkin and occupied by Jeriah Evans; the tenancy was a detached part of Tan-y-Pistyll farm. George Borrow described a visit to the Pistyll in 1854, at which time a visitors' book was kept at the nearby cottage for the 'Saxons' who customarily came to see the falls in the summer months. The final element was the improvement of the road by the County Council in 1903. The cottage was restored in the late C20.

The cottage in the form left by the fifth baronet c.1840 was described by Hubbard as 'a splendid essay in the rustic picturesque', but for all its unwrought materials it is influenced by Classical precedent with its low roof pitch, deep eaves and pedimented front to the west.

Exterior

A cottage in local slatey shale masonry with a low-pitch slate roof, tile ridge, stone chimney, and deep eaves and verges with timber barges and soffit boarding. The plan is T shaped, with a tetrastyle rustic columned front to the west including a bark-clad pediment. The upper part of the columns now support a balcony. Gabled wing to the north. The east elevation has an asymmetrical gable now altered and extended to the left to cover a small south outshut.

The main windows to south and east are of casement type in iron in two or three lights with small panes, with timber mullions, rough lintels and rough stone sills. Modern fenestration and semi-glazed door to the south extension.

Reason for designation

An early C19 adaptation of a cottage, with classical features in whimsical rustic form, related to the early promotion of rural tourism.