Hafotty

The original house at Hafotty was built of wood.^[1] This house is recorded as "Bodiordderch" ("the house of Iordderch"), and has also been called 'Bodarddar'.^[2][3] Anthony Emery dates this wooden house to the second quarter of the 14th century.^[4] Its original owner was Thomas Norres from Lancashire.^[2] In 1535 the house was in the possession of Henry Norris, Constable of Beaumaris Castle.^[a][6] By the 16th century, Hafotty had passed to the Bulkeleys, another prominent North Wales family,^[b] and had acquired its present name, meaning summer house, or summer dairy.^[1] Cadw records extensions to the house in the 16th century, and its re-casing in stone in the 17th.^[6] By the 20th century, Hafotty was in a state of some dereliction,^[10] but was restored in the 1970s and again in the early 21st century.^[5] The house remains in the possession of the Bulkeleys, although under the care of Cadw, and is occasionally open to the public.^[2][11]

The Gwynedd Pevsner considers Hafotty "one of Anglesey's classic small medieval houses".^[5] Peter Smith, in his Houses of the Welsh Countryside, categorises it as a three-unit hall house and notes that, despite its "relatively modest" size, it was still a "house of status".^[12] Built to an H-plan, and constructed of rubble masonry, it is of two-storeys.^[6] Dendrochronology from tree rings dates the beams in the extension to between 1509 and 1553.^[2] The interior contains some notable medieval fittings, including fireplaces and window surrounds.^[5] The fireplace has a Tudor arch and the inscription in Latin: Si deus nobiscum, quis contra nos ('If God is with us, who can be against us') which is a Bulkeley family motto. The arch also has carvings of the heads of a Saracen and a bull, another Bulkeley family motif.^[2] Hafotty is a Grade I listed building^[6] and a scheduled monument.^[13]