1. Ty'n-y-Pwll is a traditional longhouse, comprising a cowhouse, and a hall with an inner room, access between the hall and the cowhouse was via a covered pentice, a feature which is to be seen in other cottages in the locality.
RCAHMW 2007

2. 'Ruined and overgrown remains of a downhill-sited building, located on the steep south-east facing slopes of Wenallt hill overlooking Risca. Most of the walls have been reduced to rubble foundations, though the downhill gable of the cowshed is still largely intact, and retains two slit windows at first floor level. Otherwise no early features survive, and even some photographs taken in the 1970s (when more of the structure was upstanding) cannot greatly help in understanding the scanty remains.

However, more information exists as a result of a cursory visit here in December 1965 by Peter Smith (RCAHMW) in the company of Cefni Barnett of Newport Museum. They came to see Pentwyn, which is a fine longhouse situated a short distance further north and which had been surveyed by Fox and Raglan some years earlier. Peter was confused by the differences between the published plan and the derelict building he saw. It is now evident that Cefni brought Peter to the wrong house, and that the pair ended up at Ty’n-y-pwll instead of Pentwyn. Peter’s notes and sketch plan can be used to help clarify the present ruins.

Ty’n-y-pwll superficially resembled a longhouse, but there was no evidence for any internal communication between the house and the cowshed, and each part had its own entrance, which was covered by a short pentice along the frontage. The ‘passage’ (presumably a reference to the cross-passage within the cowshed) had wooden Tudor-arched doors. The house had a direct-entry plan, comprising a hall with the usual gable fireplace and stone winding stairs. No mention is made regarding any ceiling beams, although there is a reference to upper crucks. Peter’s plan indicates a pair of rooms beyond a solid stone wall at the upper end of the hall, but he admits not going into this part of the building; it is possible he was misled by the existence of a small room added to the upper end of the house. However, it may be that there was indeed two rooms within the hall itself (the common layout in these upland farms), and perhaps the wooden doors he saw were situated here, and not in the cowshed. All these lost features suggest that the house dates back to the 1600s, far older than might be guessed from the surviving rubble.'

Source: notes by Paul Davis, 9 February 2024.