The Grade II listed building is located in hilly terrain north-east of Wrexham, next to a series of shallow lakes, which also takes its name.

[6] The main current building largely dates from a 19th-century remodelling in 1835, which incorporated elements of the earlier structure.

[3]: 29  Alfred Neobard Palmer, a local historian, described it as "the chief house in Gresford", and more important than Acton Hall.

[3]: 30 The existing building is in the Jacobean style[1] of the Regency era[7] with a slate roof and rendered chimneys.

[8] The interior was remodelled in the 20th century, but retains some 19th-century features such as panelled doors and shutters and a 16th-century inglenook fireplace.

The farmhouse has separate access from Old Wrexham Road and is hidden from view from the hall by a long brick wall.

[3]: 29 Pant-yr-ochain means the "hollow of lamentation",[3]: 31  with the Ochain possibly linked to a feudal lord of the same name who lived in the area, but with no surviving evidence.

Iocyn, was a popular medieval Welsh Christian name, possibly derived from Latin jocundus, meaning "happy".

[3]: 29 The area was a Welsh settlement by the late 12th century, under Owain Gwynedd, and part of Powys Fadog.

[10] There has been a building present on the site since the 13th century, and during the medieval times, a feudal lord known as Ochain lived there, although no recognisable evidence survives.

[8] The building can trace its heritage to the 1530s; Tudor wattle and daub timber-framed walls of this era are visible from the modern-building's inglenook fireplace.

Almer argued that the materials he took were not originally of Holt Castle itself, and instead came from the dissolved monasteries from Valle Crucis and Combermere.

Jane's and Gibert's son, also named William, was said to have been in financial difficulty and had mortgaged Pant Iocyn for £1,000, and later sold it for £1,200 in 1613 to Nathaniel Owens.

At the time it was surveyed the grounds contained two lakes, Pwll Gwenllian (now The Flash) and Llyn Llongmere, which is overlooked by the house.

John and Elizabeth lived in Plas Iocyn until 1730, leaving for Gwersyllt, and their departure marked the end of the building being used as a "gentleman's residence", instead becoming a mere, and increasingly unimproved, tenanted farmhouse on the Acton estate.

Under Cunliffe's ownership, the house was substantially added to, aiming to become a "commodious dwelling" that expanded into the land, and it became two properties, the main hall and a farmhouse.

[3]: 37, 41 Cunliffe died in June 1834, possibly around the same time, his two unmarried daughters, Emma and Charlotte, moved into the renovated house.

The building also shortly appeared to be labelled as Plas Issa, on an 1844 tithe map, possibly to distinguish it from the farmhouse, which by 1844 was occupied by Francis Jones.

First, it was to Florence Ford, then in 1891, its tenant was Anita Sophia Fletcher, followed by William Busfeild in 1901, and Thomas Richard Cholmondeley in 1909, with his widow Margaret Herbert continuing to live in the building a short time after his death.

[3]: 45 The earliest detailed illustration of the house by Philip Yorke of Erddig, is said to possibly date from the 1870s when it was included in Alfred Neobard Palmer's Thirteen Country Townships.

[3]: 30–31 After World War I, and the decrease in power of the gentry, the Acton Park estate was slowly sold off in the 1920s.

Between 1992 and 1993, it was owned by local nightclub owner Bob Scott, whose ownership led to the building being visited by many football players and supporters,[3]: 45  as it possibly became mainly a sports bar, based on its interior.

[3]: 45, 47  The company claimed that when they bought the building it was "partially boarded up", with a leaking roof, and Sports Pub interior.

Three of these pools were surveyed to be shallow, at a low altitude, with high alkalinity and moderate phosphorus levels.

The pools are located far from the sea, and it has been theorised that the high alkalinity is due to saline levels in ground-water.

While the smallest of the three surveyed ("pool 3") is in the north-west section of the group of lakes and is 2.2 metres (7.2 ft) deep on its eastern edge.