Some buildings become so well-known locally, and even regionally, that they are given nicknames that need no explanation and the imposing Craig Y Môr is easily one of them.
Perched on a rocky outcrop, battered by the Welsh weather while looking out to sea, some might say the austere building looks like a set from a horror movie, paranormal programme or windswept period drama. Rumours persist that the property is haunted.
The house was built in the early 20th century for the Smellie family and has over the years become known as 'the spooky house', 'the haunted house on the hill', the 'Scooby Doo house' and has even been compare to 'the Psycho house' after the famous Hitchcock movie - but it is surely also known as an amazing and prominent local coastal landmark.
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Mystery surrounds the house as it has never been for sale, so little is known about the internal features due to it being passed down the Smellie family to a daughter named Ruth, whose children are now said to own the breath-taking building.
Craig Y Môr was used as a summer house until the late 1920s when William Smellie was ill and decided to move there permanently with his wife, Ethel. Mr Smellie died in 1955, followed by Mrs Smellie six years later and the house has been passed down the family ever since.
However, the house on the Isle of Anglesey is so well preserved it is available for hire as a photo shoot and film location and has appeared in programmes such as ITV's Safe House, where glimpses of the inside include glorious wood wall panelling, period features in the bathroom, servants and spooky looking stone spiral staircases; gulp.
The house achieved a Grade II lisiting from Cadw in 1998 for being a 'boldly designed early 20th century house, ambitious in scale, dramatic in massing, and refined in detail; prominent local coastal landmark' but even these listing details don't include any internal details.
According to website British Listed Buildings, construction on the house began in 1911, stopping during the first World War, to the designs of architect F.G. Hicks. The home was completed in 1922 as a holiday home for the wealthy Smellie family, one of a number built at that time on the Isle of Anglesey.
The location of the property, striding out into the waves at Trearddur Bay, dictated the design, with the sea-facing wing a two-storey building used by the family, with big windows including double bays, offering incredible coastal views from three sides.
This advanced wing for the family is then joined by a lower, single-storey section at the rear that was the servants wing, garage and boathouse, plus a caretaker's house.
Even the approach to the house is unique. It is reached by a zig-zag flight of steps bounded by stepped, rubble masonry walls that lead to the main entrance in the single storey porch in the angle.
The house is built mainly from robust local stone in a neo-Georgian style and on a stormy, overcast day some might say the house looks gloomy, and even a bit spooky, but for others the property is a romantic, wind-swept beauty that has history as well as mesmerising character.
But if the colourful children's TV presenter Timmy Mallet can be spooked by the house as soon as he noticed it, then maybe the alternative names for the house are somewhat justified. While visiting the north Wales area, the house captivated him so much he painted a picture of it; and spooked himself all over again.
While at the location on November 10, 2022 Mallet tweeted: "Is this the Psycho house? Spooky!" then later on the same day a tweet of his painting of the house appeared on the social media channel with the caption: "Pyscho house Anglesy. Scares me as I paint it!"
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