The Lost Cottages - Glan y Gors, near Aled Isaf Reservoir

We were driving through the Denbigh Moors in late August on the way to the Aled Isaf Reservoir, and then Llyn Brenig. This is a landscape very different from the Snowdonia mountains that I'm more used to; a fascinating, windswept, ancient place. We passed two tumuli, one on either side of the road, both very obvious in the flat, high land. It seemed like a minor mystery to then come across a little cottage built with thin slate slabs. I've got used to seeing buildings like this in the great slate quarrying areas around Blaenau Ffestiniog, but didn't expect it on the moors. A small slate quarry by the Aled Isaf Reservoir provided some context. These moors must be peat layered on slate, and with few stones lying about on the moorland, the only resource for houses would be quarrying.

The area past this, around Llyn Brenig, was full of abandoned houses, and it was a torture to not be able to just jump out of the car and go and explore. This one, though, was right next to the single lane road down to the reservoir, with a parking space nearby. Of course I had to have a look.

The second of the tumuli I saw (OS Grid Reference SH 9191 6217) on the way to Aled Isaf Reservoir. Photo taken from the moving car.

This is what I caught sight of from the car; a long, low cottage, falling into ruin. Glan y Gors is at OS Grid Reference SH 9131 6094. There's no information about it easily found online, but it does exist on the 1888-1913 map.

The cottage from the end, with a wall extending outwards which implies the presence of another room or outbuilding. 

The moorland stretching away. The trees around the house were the only ones close by, and would have provided a little shelter from the scouring upland wind. 

The whole building almost seems to be sagging into the ground, collapsing in on itself. The slates it was built of are astonishingly thin.

The big fireplace has collapsed in part. Perhaps the lintel was wood, or the slate beam has failed, but it makes for a precariously balanced chimney stack. 

It's hard to tell if some of the interior walls - to the side of the chimney stack, for example - were wood, of if they were of slate and have simply collapsed. Perhaps if there were a doorway to this side, the wall would more easily collapse, with few stones to show where it used to be.

Part of a collapsed wall in front of the big fireplace. 

The gap to the right of the big fireplace. Possibly a doorway to the next room.

The corner of one of the badly ruined rooms. 

The small fireplace on the back of the chimney stack. Again, there is no lintel. Perhaps, faced with these thin, poor slates, wood was the only option.

In what could be the end wall, there seems to be a small window hole near the ground. 

The view towards the end wall, with a collapsed wall between.

The width of the house, with the chimney stack and wall to the right of it still standing. 

Bricks tumbled in with the slate, maybe from the fireplace.

The grass in and around the cottage was impossibly lush and green. Some of the collapsed back wall can be seen, but very little remains.

Perhaps the amount of water standing on the ground explains the lush grass. The house was on a little rise only a foot or so above this mini flood.

The collapsed wall behind the room with the small fireplace, the slates lying in the same order in which they were built.

The small window low down in the end wall. 

Part of the long wall facing the road, badly ruined.

Some of the render still remains on the outside of the cottage, but it looks ready to fall off at the slightest provocation.

The long length of the cottage. Quite a lot of render still remains.

Outside the almost entirely intact end wall are signs of another chamber, perhaps a barn. This makes the low window in the end wall more intriguing.

The end wall and ruined next chamber or pen. 

In this wide angle shot the house looks impossibly long.

Looking along the house from beside the end wall. 

The big breach in the wall. Maybe there was a window here.

Almost no sign remains of the opposite wall.

A view through the walls to the hills beyond. Little render remains on this end of the house.

The little house is sheltered by low trees, which might have been a welcome comfort during bad weather, but a worry in very strong winds. 

The nearby Aled Isaf Reservoir, which postdates the house. The house exists on the 1888-1913 map, while the reservoir was not created until 1938. The land flooded by the reservoir has been shown to have been occupied during the Mesolithic period.

The river, Afon Aled, has carved a deep channel through the land on its way northwards.

A small slate quarry stands right on the edge of the river, very near the dam. It's not shown on early maps, but neither is it marked as a quarry on the modern map.

 

 

At Llyn Brenig, to the south-east of Aled Isaf Reservoir, is a cornucopia of Bronze Age religious sites, including a tumulus called Boncyn Arian (to the left in the photo) and another tumulus just visible on the island in the lake. Much is known about these sites because of in-depth archaeological investigations before the flooding associated with creating the reservoir. 

Next to Boncyn Arian is a ring cairn, a ritual site which also contains cremation burials.

The geological strata are beautifully presented at the edge of the lake, with dark peat on top.

As we passed this little cottage at the edge of Llyn Brenig, I wondered if this is how Glan y Gors might have looked before it fell into ruin. I think this cottage is Bwlch Du (OS Grid Reference SH 9871 5838), shown on the 1888-1913 map, and so much older than the reservoir, which was created between 1973-76.

 

Another day, we'll come back to this area to explore further, including the full Llyn Brenig archaeological trail, and maybe a few more cottages.