Pale Hall, was built between 1869 and 71, for Henry Robertson, the railway engineer. It stands out amid Victorian mansions of North Wales for the quality of its masonry and internal fittings. Designed by Samuel Pountney Smith of Shrewsbury, for which town Robertson became M.P. in 1862, it was an extension of a smallish symmetrical Gothic house, the structure of which provides the plan for the three western rooms.

Built from fine Cefn sandstone, the house has an eclectic Elizabethan exterior responding to the irregular plan. The main entrance is through a porte cochere to a generous vestibule, then through a top-lit galleried hall from which open the library, the central boudoir and the drawing room with a new south bay, and a new dining room entered beneath the ample stairwell. On the first floor were eight bedrooms and a billiard room. The remaining third of the house and the service ranges are set around a large yard.

The body of the house has three storeys, the main western side two, and the tower over the vestibule four, united by strapwork parapets concealing low roofs that emphasize the tall chimneys. The porte cochere is enriched with keystone heads, including Robertson with a steam engine on the right. A loggia decorates the garden side of the service court, which has a slim spired tower, that is prominent in the landscape.

The vestibule is paved with polychrome Minton tiles and contains a marble fireplace by Bennett of Liverpool, which rises by two sets of steps, and there is an engraved glass screen to the heart of the house. The staircase is of carved and veneered woods by Cox of London. The exceptionally rich fireplace is in bronze and ormolu etc. The boudoir has a slightly domed ceiling on an elliptical plan and plasterwork with painted roundels of the Seasons and Elements. The drawing room is mirrored for perspective effects and also has a coved Neoclassical ceiling. The dining room has a fitted buffet carved with fishes, fruits and birds, and a compartmented plaster ceiling.

Source: Haslam, Orbach and Voelcker (2009), The Buildings of Wales: Gwynedd. Pevsner Architectural Guide, page 625.

RCAHMW, October 2009