Gelynis Farmhouse (Cil-Ynnys) is a 16th century

farmhouse FarmHouse (FH) is a men's social fraternity founded at the University of Missouri on April 15, 1905. It became a national organization in 1921. Today FarmHouse has 34 active chapters in the United States and Canada.FarmHouse Fraternity New Memb ...

Radyr Radyr (; ) is an outer suburb of Cardiff, about northwest of Cardiff city centre. Radyr is part of Radyr and Morganstown Community, for which the 2011 Census recorded a population of 6,417. Morganstown is north of Radyr, on the other sid ...

, Cardiff, Wales. It is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

Gelynis is located in the

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

Radyr and Morganstown Radyr and Morganstown is a community (civil parish) of Cardiff which covers the areas of Radyr and Morganstown in the northwest of Cardiff, capital city of Wales. The community elects a Radyr and Morganstown community council. Description Th ...

, a suburb to the north-west of Cardiff. The farmhouse dates from the 16th century. Tradition ascribes its construction variously to Hugh Lambert, an

ironmaster An ironmaster is the manager, and usually owner, of a forge or blast furnace for the processing of iron. It is a term mainly associated with the period of the Industrial Revolution, especially in Great Britain. The ironmaster was usually a larg ...

from Kent but of French origins, or to a Cardiff

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...

. John Newman, in his 1995 ''Glamorgan'' volume in the Buildings of Wales series, suggests that it was clearly built "for someone with pretensions", citing the decorative stonework and the double-height

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...

. In the 21st century Gelynis operated as

bed and breakfast A bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. In addition, a B&B sometimes has the hosts living in the house. ''Bed and breakfast'' is also used to ...

accommodation. In Spring 2025 the farmhouse was for sale.

Architecture and description

Newman describes Gelynis Farmhouse as "one of the most completely preserved early

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

houses in the county". It is of two storeys and built to a cross passage plan. The building material is local

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

stone with a coating of

limewash Whitewash, calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, asbestis or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime (calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk (calcium carbonate, CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes us ...

. The roofing material is

Welsh slate The existence of a slate industry in Wales is attested since the Roman period, when slate was used to roof the fort at Segontium, now Caernarfon. The slate industry grew slowly until the early 18th century, then rapidly during the Industrial ...

. The range lies at a right angle to the farm and

Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage ...

suggests it is mostly of a later date, principally of the 19th century. The farmhouse is a

. The range is separately listed at Grade II.

Notes

References

Sources

* {{cite book , last = Newman , first = John , author-link=John Newman (architectural historian) , year = 1995 , title = Glamorgan , series = The Buildings of Wales , publisher =

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

, location= London, UK , isbn = 978-0-140-71056-4 , oclc = 33858574 Grade II* listed buildings in Cardiff Country houses in Wales Grade II* listed houses in Wales