5 bedroom house

Built in 1876, Cartrefle was the Welsh retreat of Sir Charles and Lady Isham until 1903 when the estate was bought by a successful industrialist. While much of the original house was lost in a fire in 1917, the house was rebuilt and purchased by the Church. It became the residence of the Bishop of Bangor and renamed Llys yr esgob - The Bishop's Court. The house was sold by the Church in 1956 when the original name was restored to Cartrefle.

Cartrefle is a semi-detached home, yet has a wonderful sense of privacy. The house was once arranged as 2 separate apartments, one on the ground and one on the first floor. Currently, the property is entered via a large porch into a sizeable hall with high ceilings. Off the hall is the kitchen/breakfast room, a very spacious drawing room with wonderful fireplace and large window, a dining room with access onto the balcony, both these rooms with views over the gardens to the Menai Strait and Snowdonia beyond.

A ground floor bedroom (with en-suite bathroom) could be used as a sitting room, and the accommodation is completed by a large utility and store room, and a guest cloakroom.

The first floor, which also has access via a separate secondary external staircase, has a large landing or hall, 4 bedrooms (one currently used as a sitting room), a kitchen, a small utility room, a store room, and 3 bathrooms, one en-suite and one 'jack and jill'. The principal bedroom also has a walk-in wardrobe with a basin.

The property is set in a an elevated position above the Menai Strait, facing the North Wales mainland.

Menai Bridge, with its local shops, including a Waitrose and an excellent selection of restaurants and cafés, is just a mile away. Secondary schools David Hughes, Friars and St Gerard's private school, as well as three primary schools and Treffos Prep School and Nursery are within easy reach of the property.

The university town of Bangor is under 4 miles away, providing further amenities, including a large selection of shops, supermarkets and leisure facilities.

Bangor's mainline station offers fast direct connections to Chester, Cardiff and London. The A55 provides access towards Holyhead and eastwards across North Wales towards Cheshire, Liverpool and Manchester.

The main house is approached via a driveway down past four single garages and down onto a substantial tarmac parking area at the front door. There are the steps at the back of the property leading up to the first floor, giving scope to using this as a separate apartment.

Cartrefle overlooks the Menai Straits, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, giving uninterrupted views from the house out over the water. There is a large balcony accessed from the dining room, which provides space for outdoor entertaining whilst enjoying a vista of the garden, waterside and Snowdonia in the distance.

The gardens are truly spectacular: from the balcony outside the dining room, stone steps lead down to sweeping lawns. There is wonderful mature planting of shrubs and trees surrounding the garden, with colour from seasonal rhododendrons and flowering shrubs. From the lawn, there is a planting area with greenhouses and a composting space. Above this is a covered indoor swimming pool and a pool house. Steps up from here lead back to the large parking area by the driveway to the front door. The main gardens have various winding pathways through both bluebell woods down to the Menai Strait, and also to the left and right through pasture down to the water's edge. The land, woodland and garden amount to c 5.31 acres.

Marketed by: Strutt & Parker, Chester