Ysgubor Fraithwen is an early-C19th, stone-built, slate-roofed, 4-bay combination range, consisting of a 2-bay barn and a 2-bay cow-house. The walls are built of very thin stone with quartz quoins to corners and oak timber lintels to openings. The range is situated at 700 ft above sea level and on a platform, aligned from north to south, across the slope of the hill. There is no structural or map evidence of a farmhouse alongside and it is presently farmed from Maes-Y-Criau. Today there are two adjacent late-20th century corrugated-iron cattle buildings built alongside.
The first edition OS map 25",1889, indicates addiitonal bays were added at each gable end. The south end retains a horizontal line of dripstones, indicating it was a lean-to and the north bay has gone.
Internally the timbers are all mortised and pegged in oak. There are 3 raking-strut, tie-beam roof-trusses with 2 pairs of trenched side-purlins and a diagonally set ridge. The tie-beam soffit has mortised studs against each wall and to centre, which are used with horizontal boards at low level to form partitions mortised to a sill-beam.
The threshing-bay has a board floor with braced partitions, side studs and ground sill-beam and boarded fences. The east side doorway retains a full-height narrow double door at the threshing-bay, while the opposite doorway is blocked, but has a stud frame for a similar doorway with raised timber cill, now blocked by corrugated-iron.
The west wall has two mucking-out openings indicating there were cattle in these two bays, although only one doorway survives. Part of the east wall has been removed to garage a vehicle, but they retain evidence of former doorways, one being probably to a feed-passage, the other for cattle. The north gable-end retains ventilation slits and recesses for joists to a former hay-loft floor over the cattle. There is a later floor over the inner cow-house bay and manger, with tethering against the threshing-bay partition . The partition dividing the two cow-houses has side studs, a sill-beam and central stud with morticed rails and boarded fence, but no braced timbers as in the threshing-bay. A doorway in the south gable-end enables the barn-bay to be used as a loose-box when required.
This Tir Gofal site was visited at the request of David Bull CPAT, as the building was likely to be demolished. Recorded, Geoff Ward, 19,04,2006.