Hafodunos

The site has been occupied since at least 1530 and a hall was built there in 1674, but the remains of houses prior to the present buildings are untraceable. The present Hafodunos Hall was designed in a Gothic Revival style by Sir Gilbert Scott, and built between 1861 and 1866 for Henry Robertson Sandbach, whose father, the slave-owner and merchant Samuel Sandbach, had bought the estate in 1830. Hafodunos is the only example of Scott's country house style in Wales and was the second domestic structure that was built by him, the first being Kelham Hall in Nottinghamshire. One of his sons, John Oldrid Scott, who was also an architect, was later employed in 1883 to design the elaborate…

Hafodunos is a Venetian-inspired house in the Gothic style, "arguably, (Scott's) most important work in Wales". The house is of two storeys, with attics and an entrance tower. The interior of the hall was as lavish as the exterior. The most notable features are a series of plaster bas-reliefs designed by John Gibson, an international sculptor from Conwy who trained in Rome, and Bertel Thorvaldsen. Gibson was a close friend of the Sandbach family. There are also five more marble reliefs by Gibson from the house, and a statue of a Nymph by R. J. Wyatt, which are now at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.