The Glendorgal Hotel started as a seaside retreat in a cottage orné style, built by Francis Rodd IV of Trebartha in 1850.
[1][2][3] It was sold to Arthur Pendarves Vivian who later bought a large swathe of Porth Beach and Trevelgue Head to go with the house.
[4] Following a dispute with the architect Silvanus Trevail, who was planning a large new housing estate at Porth.
[1][3] The original building was surrounded and partly over-built with later 20th century additions and its internal spaces reordered.
[2] In 1918 the First World War came very close to the Glendorgal and tea parties were held on the veranda for injured soldiers.