Coytrahen House (nprn 18438) is located to the north of Bridgend in the Llynfi valley. The house lies on the east side of the valley, towards the upper north-west boundary of a small landscape park. The house is identified with the ownership of John Popkin, important in local politics, between 1772 and 1797, and it is from this time that the park was developed. Gardens were also developed around the house (265730).
The park lies between the villages of Coytrahen and Tondu. It is bounded on the west by the Llynfi except at the south (Tondu) end where a small area lay to the west of the river. On the north it is bounded by a stone wall along the lane between Coytrahen and Brynmenyn, on the east by field boundaries, and on the south by the village of Brynmenyn. The ground slopes down to the west, with a steep drop to the flood plain at the north end of the park and gentler slopes elsewhere.

There were once two drives, from north and south. The original, south, drive from Tondu, across the railway and river is now out of use. The north drive enters the park off the Coytrahen to Brynmenyn lane, just east of the railway line, approaching the house from the north-west with a branch, the former service drive, to the Home Farm. Bridge Cottage at the north drive entrance may have been adapted as a lodge in the nineteenth century (18082).

The park was originally laid out as areas of woodland interspersed with open grassland dotted with trees, clumps, and boundary belts, reaching its present layout before 1877. There has been much felling of mature trees though the broad pattern of woodland and boundary trees remains. The park has two main areas of open grassland: to the south-west, the house overlooking pasture fields and the river beyond; and to the east where open parkland (to some extent created by more recent boundary removal) is partly fringed by deciduous woodland, rhododendrons and Scots pines, with hanging woodland to the north.

Gardens lie around the house (265730) and to its north-west (700145). 

Sources:
Cadw 2007: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Additional and Revised Entries vol.I (ref: PGW(Gm)65(BRI)).
Ordnance Survey First Edition 25-inch map, sheet: Glamorgan XXXIV.11 (1875).

RCAHMW, 10 May 2022