The hotel at Portmeirion was originally the mansion of Aber Ia and the site of the present village, together with its dramatic wooded setting, formed the small estate around the house (NPRN 265160). It was built c1850 and was described in 1861 as:` one of the most picturesque of all the summer residences to be found on the sea-coast of Wales.' The house and estate were bought by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis in 1925 and formed the focus of the Portmeirion village, conceived and designed by him between 1925 and his death in 1978 (see NPRN 301590). The newly restored hotel was opened in 1926, and included a new 3-storey wing added to the W, one of the first of Clough Williams-Ellis's designs to be executed on this site. In 1930 a new single-storey dining room addition was erected, with later additions of 1935.

In June 1981 the hotel was gutted by fire. Its was subsequently restored and reopened in 1988. Amongst the many of Clough Williams-Ellis's celebrated guests at the hotel and its associated village structures were Noel Coward, Kenneth Clark, George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell and Frank Lloyd Wright.

A Victorian former country house, now a large hotel, constructed of rendered rubble stone with slate roofs, which are fish-scale patterned to the primary part. It also has seven chimneys with grouped Gothic-style terracotta stacks. The original house is of 2-storeys and consists of a principal H-plan section with a subsidiary section of inverted F-plan adjoining to the south-west. The gables have projecting eaves and plain bargeboards.

The main block has a 5-bay eastern (sea-facing) elevation, with bays 2 and 5 projecting as gabled crosswings. These have arched windows with plain, 2-pane, sashes to the first floor, each with moulded label. Bay 2 has a square-headed, similar sash with returned, moulded label, whilst bay 5 has a single-storey canted bay with arched, plain-glazed windows. The recessed third and fourth bays have labelled sashes to the upper floor and a large flat-roofed bow window to the ground floor, which is a 20th century addition; this with tall 2-part windows. The recessed first bay, to the South, has a similar arched first floor sash with an entrance to the ground floor via a decorative iron porch with sloped metal canopy.

The entrance elevation, facing north, is of 3 bays, with a canted single-storey porch to the right-hand bay. This has an arched entrance with plain glazed doors and segmental overlight, with plain round-headed windows to the canted returns. There are arched sash windows with labels to both floors, a large mural by Hans Feibusch to the first floor between bays 1 and 2, and below a flush lateral chimney.

Adjoining to the south is a bowed, single-storey, flat-roofed restaurant addition with rectangular bay beyond, with cross-windows throughout.

The southern section of the hotel comprises two 20th century, 4-storey, additions, with rendered elevations and hipped slate roofs. The northern-most of the two is set back slightly. These have 12-pane sashes and 16-pane, 2-part casements under the eaves to the upper floor, and all have external wooden slatted shutters.

The southern elevation, facing the Observatory Tower, has a depressed arch to the exposed rubble ground floor and a multi-pane window to the first floor above with decorative wrought iron balcony; small-pane, 2-part casements with shutters to the second and third floors.

Facing the sea immediately in front of the hotel (to the E) is a Victorian revetted terrace. This has turned balustrading and classical surmounting statuary.

(Source; Cadw listing database) S Fielding RCAHMW 26/05/2006