Rhianfa was inspired by Lady Sarah Hay-Williams of Bodelwyddan's sketches of chateau in the Loire Valley in France. Designed by Charles Verelst, the Liverpool Architect, the building achieves a fairytale quality when viewed from across the Menai Strait. Completed in 1850, the building has steep roofs covered in fish-scale slates and a skyline dominated by curved and straight pitches and spires. On the seaward front there are narrow drum towers with conical roofs at the corners and a galleried upper floor running between. The ironwork around the entrance is exemplary and the doorway includes a quotation from Psalm 90.

Source: Haslam, Orbach and Voelcker (2009), The Buildings of Wales: Gwynedd. Pevsner Architectural Guide, page 150.

RCAHMW, October 2009