Tan y Bwlch is a beautiful little farmstead at the east end of Pant y Griafolen, under the edge of Craig Cefn Coch and Pen y Castell. A footpath passes straight past the building on its way to Dulyn, at the west end of this mountain valley. The house stands at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7320 6860.
There's little to find out about Tan y Bwlch online, and so far I've failed to find it in census searches, but the 1888-1913 map (online at archiuk) shows the farmstead, with its fields, straddling the border between the parishes of Caerhun and Llanbedr y Cennin. The house itself sits within Caerhun parish.
Although the house is at about 410 metres, once upon a time this eastern end of the mountain valley would have been quite densely populated. I count eight or nine farms, including Tan y Bwlch, in a mile's radius of Hafod y Gors Wen in the centre of the valley. One of these, Rowlyn Uchaf, at the rather lower height of about 270m, is still inhabited, and I think is still a working farm. Although the valley is high, the arms of high hills reaching out to enfold it seem to afford some protection from the wild weather.
From the open access land along the abandoned leat that runs past Pen y Gadair, the farm sits a little higher up on the hillside, between the track along the leat and the higher track that leads up past Craig Cefn Coch (and, if you walked for a long way, eventually to Tal y Bont, near Bangor). The footpath to Dulyn runs directly past the ruins although a few acres of land around the house, as is often the case with these places, is exempt from open access.
The trees clustered around the ruin are a common sight in these situations, providing protection from the wind and a source of fuel.
On this October evening the lowering sun was catching the western end of the house. I expect that during the vicious hailstorms of an hour or so earlier, the place would have looked rather more bleak.
The house has a small yard or trackway in front of it, sectioned off with a low wall, as many of these long houses do. The narrow entrance at this end is clearly for foot traffic, rather than carts.
Unusually for ruins like these, this property retains evidence of first floor windows. Also unusually, it seems to be split either into two houses or one house without a connecting interior door.
The westernmost house cell, with the first floor windows slightly offset from the single ground floor one.
This western cell has only one ground floor window to the left of the front door, but two first floor windows above.
To the east is the second farmhouse cell, with its own front door.
Some bits of render remain between the stones.
It's hard to tell if the right hand cell was also two storey because the walls haven't survived to such a height.
The entrance to the western cell, right against the house wall, with a narrow first floor window above.
Inside this substantial western cell there's only a single, tiny fireplace, which makes me question whether this were a separate farmhouse or simply an extension of the original with no doorway through. It seems strange to have a two storey house without a big fireplace. My assumption is that either the inhabitants just put up with having to go outside to get to the other rooms, or that this western cell was for labourers or other workers to live in, who would eat meals cooked by the women of the family in the house next door. I didn't notice any obvious sign of an upstairs fireplace, but the wall is too destroyed above this one to tell.
This large downstairs window would have let in a good amount of necessary light, in a time when lighting would have been restricted to candles or oil lamps.
Despite the necessary harshness of mountain life, the views would have been beautiful.
The eastern wall of the western cell, with no fireplace. This backs onto the large fireplace in the eastern cell, so perhaps some heat would have filtered through. No joist holes are visible but maybe the wall simply hasn't survived well enough and high enough.
Looking east towards the end wall of this cell, and the front door hard against the wall. Ferns have made a home in the stonework of the first floor.
A few bricks and a tile lie on the ground - perhaps a clue to the interior of the building.
I like to think that the house floor was tiled with quarry tiles. Perhaps some remain under the soil, unless they were recovered for use elsewhere.
The front door shows signs of having had a substantial porch added on at some point in the building's life.
About two feet to the left and right of the doorway stones on the ground (more obvious in the flesh) seem to suggest a wide porch protruding for three or four feet from the front of the building. Another possibility is that the positioning of the stones is conincidental, and the porch was constructed from bricks like the ones lying in the doorway.
To the right of the door, render can be seen at a diagonal, indicating the roof line of the porch.
The front of the eastern cell is rather more humble at first sight, due to its apparent lack of a first floor, but it seems to be the more important dwelling, with two windows downstairs and an impressive main fireplace.
The main doorway retains a simple outside flagstone and a door sill.
This room was apparently divided into two by a stone wall, but this wall only protrudes a few feet at each side of the house, and seems to be finished there rather than ruined. Perhaps the gap was filled with a wooden partition. Often evidence of internal partitions such as these is lost due to their being wood or plaster and lath. A rather lovely wooden partition in an 18th century cottage can be seen here.
Inside the smaller room at the east end is a suitably small fireplace with holes in the lintel, probably for hanging something above the fire.
From the inside of the building, the eastern window almost as if it were actually once a door into, but on going back to check it's something of an optical illusion.
At the western end of this cell is the big fireplace, although it's rather unusual for being placed at the side of the wall rather than at the centre.
The fireplace is half collapsed. There's no evidence of a bread oven at the left end, and I wondered if a bread oven at the right might have caused the weakness that made the lintel drop.
Looking into the fireplace towards the right, it's very hard to see if there were ever any bread oven in here.
A rather blurry photo looking upwards shows that the area above the fire was partly blocked by slate slabs, with a chimney vent in the middle.
Outside this cell, a piece of cast iron embedded in the ground.
Looking along the range to the west.
At the eastern end of the range this outbuilding is in relatively good condition due to being roofed and looked after. I would assume that the building used to have a pitched roof and the new sloping roof is an adaptation after a partial collapse.
In front of this outbuilding one of the large larch trees has fallen, luckily away from the building.
The doorway into the outbuilding shows the same arrangement as the previous door, with a large flagstone outside and a sill still in situ.
Inside the walls are in good shape, but show no signs of render. Is the piece of wood to the left perhaps one of the original joists?
To the right in the back wall it almost appears as if a window were once in the wall, now blocked up, but it's hard to see this on the outside, and if there were a beam or lintel, it must have gone.
At the very end of the building is a narrow pen.
The wall which runs in front of the building continues on towards the east. This track is enclosed on both sides, running to the eastern edge of the field.
Looking back towards the house from the end of the track. According to the 1888-1913 map the track forks at this point.
Looking towards the west, with the well kept outbuilding at the end of the range.
Looking along the back of the buildings, where a fallen tree can be seen that must have done damage to the back wall.
There's a small back yard which runs the length of the house and then continues west and around the corner.
From behind the eastern cell you can see the hefty stone dividing wall to the left of the main door.
At the back of the restored outbuilding a small buttress has been built. To the right of this is where the possible small window would have been, but there's no sign on the outside. If it were a window, perhaps it was one of the 'arrow slit' variety one sees in barns.
The two storey western cell, from behind. Could joist holes be hidden by the sprouting ferns in the wall to the right? Interestingly, the back yard is also divided by a wall where the two cells meet, running straight on from the wall in the left of this photo.
The top and western end of the low wall around the back yard.
At this western end of the house rudimentary steps seem to have been made in the wall with narrow stones.
A noticeable ridge and ditch runs around the corner of the house.
One of the more impressive trees in front of the house.
A few younger trees stand further away. I wonder how many cycles of growing and falling the trees have gone through since the house was last inhabited.
This big tree is host to some rather impressive clusters of mushrooms.
The view up and across the valley is sweeping and wild, but in this light it looks deceptively calm.
The sun sets behind the western mountains. With the wall a little more intact, perhaps this isn't far removed from the view when the house was last lived in.
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