The Lost Cottages - Tyddyn Du, Rowen

This little cottage on the slopes of Tal y Fan has always had an odd, rather dour feeling for me. Maybe it's its location, so close to the Maen y Bardd burial chamber, which I used to view with some apprehension. Maybe it's the name, Tyddyn Du (Black Smallholding). Maybe it's because, at some point, it has been essentially disembowelled and turned into a large shed. There's very little sense of the personal left behind.

It's also fascinated me in equal measure. Who chose to build this house in an area full of so many solemn Neolithic and Bronze Age remains? Perhaps it was a totally practical decision. It's very close to the road up the hill leading to Bwlch y Ddeufaen, the pass through the mountains, which was turned into a Roman road but must have been used long before the Romans ever set foot in Britain. The area has been continously settled, with various settlement remains in evidence along the side of the track. Perhaps the inhabitants of Tyddyn Du were descendants of the people who have lived here for centuries. Before our reliance on cars and electricity it was probably an eminently practical place for a hafod. When farmers were driven to live year round in these places, its nearness to the track and to the village of Rowen below would have been a boon.

Coflein describes the house as post-mediaeval and 'very badly renovated,' although think a certain amount of the damage to the house occurred before the renovation. It's mentioned in parish records, assuming this is the same Tyddyn Du, as far back as 1746, although it could easily be older, as the earlier records don't seem to mention house names so often. It appears inhabited in the national register taken in 1939, by John and Anne Owen, farmers aged 71 and 86.

The house can be found at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7402 7166.

The house sits just to the south of the Roman road, in the cluster of trees at the centre of this photograph.

Very close to the entrance, the Maen y Bardd (Poet's Stone) burial chamber sits on the north side of the road, incorporated into a field boundary. When I was young I found it spooky. Now I view the place with a great affection and reverence.

The gateway to the property, with a lovely new gate installed. The footpath runs down the track and past the house.

The old gate has been left just inside the entrance. This is the gate I've known all my life, almost impossible to open, and weighted with part of a huge cog to keep it from being left open by careless walkers.

The driveway down to the house has fascinated me for many years. It's so beautifully built, so sinuous, with such tight stone walls. It's a relatively narrow track, too. 

Why put so much effort into building these beautiful stone walls but make the track so narrow? Why build it with such curves? 

The track straightens out as it reaches the yard, and the wall is in poor condition here.

The track turns a sharp right angle and leads down to the house through the trees. 

At some point the place was bought and renovations began. The local gossip was that it was bought by some people from Liverpool, who started work without planning permission. When the work was discovered, within the Snowdonia National Park and with no services or proper vehicular access, they were told promptly to stop. (Information posted on the Rowen Facebook page suggests the property was bought by the Liverpudlian Old Swan Boys' Club (now the Old Swan Youth Club), and is still in their ownership. It has also been suggested there that the place was once used for training terrorists about twenty years ago! Presumably not in association with the club, though!) 

Possibly part of a bed frame, lying on the driveway. 

The aborted extension, built on what must have originally been the front of the house. In a way, it's rather sad the house couldn't be restored and used, but I'm also rather glad this area of the mountainside hasn't become the location of a holiday cottage or similar.

A very small chimney is visible on the end of the building. It seems almost absurdly small.

A rusted but relatively modern petrol can, discarded on the ground.

This shot from the south end of the house shows the disembowelled interior, and the upper floor put in during the aborted renovation. There is something of a step up further into the room. 

Two pipes through the wall give a glimpse into the end of the building. This is looking from the north end into the abandoned new first floor. 

Another pipe in the west wall shows the tiny end room, with no interesting features in it. 

This is a photo I took later in the year, leaning in through the wide doorway at the front. I'm not sure what the large brick structure is, or if it's something to do with the fireplace that must have been knocked out to make the door. Possibly there was a bread oven here.

Part of a bed frame lying rusting on the ground. These are often used to fill holes in fences and walls.

On a visit later in the year, this is a rather lovely bed end making up part of the fence. 

At the back of the house it's easy to see how it's built into the hill. There's only one window in this back wall, but I think two others, both fairly small, have been blocked up.

Taken later in the year, this photo shows that the western side of the roof is nicely slated. It seems likely this is a new roof put on during the renovations. 

This has become the front of the property, but I assume that this wide doorway was put in when the use changed from house to barn. It sits directly under the small chimney, so there was probably a fireplace where the door is now.

I assume this was the front door of the house originally, with a window to each side. I think the windows have been opened up to the roof at a later date. 

This must have been a small house to live in, and quite exposed to the south winds that storm up the valley. On a day like this, though, it could be idyllic.