Prehistoric and Other Structures, near Tyddyn Du, Caerhun Parish

The last of the snow was going as I took a walk from home up towards Tal y Fan. I had hoped to get to the top in clear weather, but as I got closer the cloud came down. Instead of slogging up the slope to stand in the mist, I turned right along the Roman road towards Rowen, then cut down the footpath past Tyddyn Du towards Hafoty Gwyn.

There's something curious about this footpath. Even with the Ordnance Survey app on my phone, I lose my bearings every time. I can either walk with my eyes constantly on the screen, or take a bearing and check my position every now and then. Somehow, still, I always end up off the path. It's like the Bermuda Triangle of the local footpaths.

This day, at least, my path ended up taking me past some ancient features I hadn't seen before. This area of the slope is scattered with hut circles and platforms near the abandoned house of Tyddyn Du, showing, if not an absolute continuity, then a repetition of occupation that has died out for now in the recent century. Occupation seems to have lasted from the prehistoric right through to the mid twentieth century. (There is, in fact, an occupied farm not much further down the slope, but all buildings higher on this side of the Afon Ro are either ruined or used as holiday homes.)

On a day much warmer than the preceding ones, the snow was beginning to melt over the fields below Tyddyn Du.

For some reason I hadn't noticed this little ruin before, very close to Tyddyn Du (just visible to the right in this photo.) Perhaps this is because it's filled with growth, and in summer would be even more hidden by the leaves. Coflein characterises the site as an undated circular enclosure which formed a homestead, all but obliterated by the construction of a 'modern' sheepfold on top. This site is at Ordnance Survey Grid Reference SH 7401 7161.

I can't presume to know more than those working for Coflein, since my background is mostly in literature and some history and a small amount of rather abstract archaeology. I would assume, though, that 'modern' is meant in the historical sense - the Early Modern period started around the time of Shakespeare, for context. Perhaps this fold is only few hundred years old or less, but not 'modern' in the sense that most lay people would read it. Today's sheepfolds are more often made of hurdles and corrugated iron.

Without the benefit of Coflein's analysis, I had wondered if this were a very small early dwelling, going only on instinct, not knowledge. It's just big enough to provide some shelter, and has a few little enclosures on the outside, as one sometimes sees around the ends of the more modern ruins. The enclosure had completely bypassed me. In the Coflein photo some of the contours of the enclosure seem to be visible. The site doesn't say whether it's prehistoric, or mediaeval. There are mediaeval hut platforms on these slopes, above the Roman road.

The west end of the enclosure, not much more than a tumble of stones.

In front of the enclosure there seemed to be a flat sweep of ground like that often found in front of farmhouses. This is probably the southern side of the circular enclosure, which apparently would have contained a number of huts.

At the back, north side of the enclosure is a little pen with an apparent entrance at the east end. The whole structure is built of quite large stones. Tyddyn Du can to seen to the left of the photo.

I'm not entirely sure of the angle of this photo. It's probably the east end of the north enclosure.

At the front, south-east corner of the fold the corner is built from three massive stones, directly on top of one another.

Seeing into the structure was very hard because of the low, gnarled bushes.

Inside the place seems to be mostly full of rubble.

Another view of the inside, at the western end.

The melting snow clearly shows the ridge of an eroded field boundary, stretching down the slope, roughly southwards, directly in front of the fold.

From a little way down the field boundary, this is the view of the ruined structure. I think it's possible to see the raised edge of the circular enclosure in front of it. The circle seems to be visible on aerial photos such as on Google Maps, as are the eroded field boundaries.

From further to the south-west, the bushes filling the fold blend in to the trees which surround Tyddyn Du.

A little way away, at SH 7390 7151, is what the Ordnance Survey map lists as a 'homestead.' This and subsequent features aren't mentioned on Coflein, and I can't find it elsewhere on the web. I would assume it was a prehistoric to mediaeval hut platform. Being terrible at estimating distances, I won't make a guess at its size, but the edge of the platform is quite visible in this photo, stretching from the wall on the right to the tree on the left. Possibly the more modern wall cuts across the platform.

Standing by the wall, the line of the outer edge of the platform is quite clear, free of snow. In the centre is a raised area.

Looking across the platform and the raised centre, towards the wall. The back edge of the platform can be seen as a line free of snow.

A view of the raised area in the centre of the platform.

Next I headed towards a cluster of hut circles not far below the homestead platform. On the Ordnance Survey map these are marked as 'hut circles.' Three are shown, along with two rectangular structures. The hut circles, though, are almost impossible to spot, even on the aerial photography. The whole place is just a jumble of stones, clumped grass, and rushes, and trying to photograph them would gain nothing, especially in the snow. It will be interesting to go back when the ground is clear to see if there are any signs, but I'm not hopeful.

This squarish structure at SH 7390 7140 is very, very similar to the earlier one which Coflein identifies as a sheepfold. It's not quite on the same alignment as the other structure, but on a similar one.

The front right corner of this structure is almost identical to the earlier one, with three very large stones one on top of the other. In the foreground in this photo is a large boulder in front of the structure, partly covered in snow.

A better view of the three large corner stones.

A lot of the walls have tumbled down.

The piece of wall is rather more intact than any in the other fold further up the slope.

More very large stones make up this front left corner.

This (roughly) western wall is an odd mixture, looking quite roughly built in one way, but most of the outward faces of the stones being very flat and neat. It's hard to tell how high it reaches under the ivy. I wouldn't expect a sheep fold wall to be much higher than the stones that are visible.

Rather like the other fold, at the back of this second square fold is a little enclosure, this time with a noticeably curved wall.

 

 

 What looks like another little enclosure on the outside of the fold.

A small distance from this little enclosure is a rather bigger rectangular one with much lower walls, perhaps two or three times as big as the other, presumably also a fold. Behind this are the invisible hut circles. Struggling to get back onto the footpath (I still somehow ended up back and forth on either side of it) seemed much more sensible than trying to pick them out of the mess of rocks and grass and snow.

The Lost Cottages - Waen Gyrach, Conwy

I don't know very much about this little ruin, and it's a curiously anonymous place, with little sense of it once being a home and working farm. The house is marked as Waen Gyrach on the 1888-1913 map, and it sits in a small set of fields in an area with the same name. We walked over from the car park near Llangelynin Old Church, taking a leisurely walk up to the standing stone of Maen Penddu and down past the old Penmaenmawr Water Works reservoir, where we were treated to a lovely visit by a large family of Carneddau ponies coming down to the river to drink. This was the long way round. The house is on the north side of the long, low hill of Cefn Maen Amor, and is relatively near to Capelulo.

As is often the case with these little farmsteads, the cluster of fields around the house are exempt from the right to roam, but a footpath goes through the farmstead directly in front of the house. Nearby are a couple of boundary stones, looking like small gravestones in the open land, marking a community boundary (Municipal Borough Boundary on the 1888-1913 map) that runs to the south and west of the enclosure. On this map the area is marked as 'Conway,' a tongue that runs up from the town bordered by the areas marked Gyffin, Llechwedd, and Dwygyfylchi.

The most telling fact I've found about the house is a short line in a guide to the 'Huw Tom Upland Walk': "Waen Gyrach cottage and the surrounding settlement built in the 1840s were finally abandoned in 1939 when the surrounding moorland became a military training ground." It's a sparse little statement, and all emotional implications are missing. If the cottage was still lived in at that time, how must the family have felt at being moved from their home to help with the war effort? Where did they go? What was the place like when soldiers were being trained in the area? If the house was built in the 1840s - the Upland Walk statement is rather unclear whether it was just the surrounding settlement or the house too - then the life of the place was only about 100 years. It's possible, of course, that the cottage was an earlier hafod and the settlement which enclosed it was built around it later.

Coflein has little to say about the place, beyond a bare description of its structure.

 

Very little remains of Waen Gyrach, found at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7398 7492, but the back wall shows nice, tight stonework.

 

 

 

There's no sign of this being a footpath, but since it's easy enough to walk around the edge of the property, I can understand why. It is marked on the map as one, however.

 

 

 

The track leads along in front of the house, cutting through the top section of the farmstead. There's no real sign of the trackway being in general use, contributing to the anonymous feeling of the place.

 

 

 

Familiar farming rubbish lies in one of the abandoned cells - corrugated iron, and an old oil drum.

 

 

 

 A doorway through into one of the cells.

 

 

 

 A small room on the end of the building. 

 

 

 

This small room seems well built, but there's no doorway through from the main house, so perhaps it was an outbuilding. 

 

 

Looking back along the length of the outbuildings. 

 

 

 

The walls seem to retain some of the render. 

 

 

 

In the easternmost room there's still a stone lintel above the fireplace.

 

 

 

This is a lovely piece of very square stone, making a short but substantial beam. 

 

 

 

Turning to look back into the other big room, one can see the fireplace there, which is quite ruined but retains some ovens. 

 

 

 

There's a lot of tumbled stone in the east end of this room, which must have been the main room. I saw no signs of windows or doorways, no gate posts (or obvious path to where the front door might have been), and no obvious sign of a garden.

 

 

 

What seems to be the bread oven at the side of the fireplace.

 

 

 

There are also some remains of a cast iron oven in the fireplace.

 

 

 

Perhaps this fireplace had a wooden beam, since there's no evidence of a beam left. The fireplace is collapsing badly. 

 

 

 

Ironwork remains in one of the buildings. Perhaps a bedstead? 

 

 

 

More unidentified metal remains, as well as an old jar. 

 

 

This broken rim of what might have been a casserole pot is the most evocative bit of rubbish that I saw. The kitchen, with the big fireplace, always feels like the heart of these houses, and one can imagine this pot being filled with good food and brought to the table to eat. 

 

 

Close outside the farmstead enclosure I found one of the boundary stones, of two marked close together on the map.

The front of this stone, found at SH 7401 7483, reads 'CL.' I'm not sure what the letters stand for. 'Common Land' has been suggested. A website about boundary stones in Northumberland suggests the initials stand for the names of the respective land owners. In the case of common land, of course, the names of land owners wouldn't apply.

The back of the stone isn't marked. 

There should be another stone at SH 7397 7488, but I couldn't find it. 

This second boundary stone was some way away in the rushes, at SH 7377 7490. 

The stone is leaning over, but the same initials, CL, can see seen. The boundary runs jaggedly past Waen Gyrach, cutting through the corner of the enclosure.