The Lost Cottages - Eilio, Eigiau

The ruined cottage of Eilio is reached via Eigiau, but along a slightly different route from Cedryn. An easy drive up a single track lane to the Carnedd Llewelyn parking area, then a flat walk along a gravel travel track to the lake. From there you cross the river and turn back on yourself, past a cylindrical stone vent over an underground water channel (listen out for the water hissing inside), and back towards Moel Eilio.

The cottage itself is much more ruined than Cedryn, but shows signs of more recent occupation than some of the ruins in this area, and perhaps more recent occupation than Cedryn, if you discount the abandoned modern renovation at Cedryn. It's hard to imagine a family still living in this isolated, hard to reach spot, which would have to be accessed on foot, horse, or by four wheel drive. In a way, we've become less mobile with modern vehicles. I imagine this place started off as a hafod, a summer dwelling, pressed into year round use by population movement associated with land enclosures. Wikipedia has a small amount to say about hafodau, in its page about Agriculture in Wales.

On the way back up from the dog-leg by the lake, the track takes you past this vent over a water channel. You can hear the water hissing as you pass by. On a previous visit I managed to make an impromptu ladder. My son had brought a couple of old tent poles (don't ask) and, by fitting them into two holes in the wall that looked like they had been made for the purpose, I climbed up to look down and see the water rushing far below.

The track continues, detouring past what looks like a small dam.

I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of this massive piece of building was, up on the edge of the hill. It's a solid wall down to the ground, not a bridge.

Eilio up on the hillside, with a rather marvellous sheep enclosure off to the left.

The place was obviously looked after well, rendered and with some effort put in to brick up this lower window.

A more modern extension, also falling to ruin.

Breeze blocks point to a fairly recent attempt at some kind of upkeep. The stone wall in front of the house is typical of these types of dwellings, as is the red paint on the woodwork. Red is the most ubiquitous colour because iron is the most ubiquitous pigment, which makes red paint cheap.

A host of nettles defending the building.

Inside there are signs of relatively recent use, including chipboard worksurfaces, which makes the level of deterioration more surprising. I'd love to know who the last people here were.

Plaster and whitewash or paint inside, and lots of sheep mess.

Very rickety stairs up to the loft. In no way would I recommend trying to climb stairs like this.

Upstairs, whitewash and plaster, and floorboards largely intact.

The roof is starting to fail badly here, but not as bad as in some of the cottage.

Doorframe and roof collapsing. I wouldn't like to be underneath these slates when they fall.

A window neatly blocked with stone, this time.

A very substantial brick oven surround pointing to more modern occupation, with a tiny bread oven in the centre.

People seem to have confused the oven for a bin. Please, people, if you can carry it in, carry it out again.

According to this, the window was blocked up in 1995.

This really resonated with me because those are my precise initials, and in 1995, if I'd inscribed anything in plaster, it probably would have been a CND sign.

More signs of more 'modern' occupation. Not as modern as the chipboard surfaces, but you don't see bricks in a lot of these places.

A better view of the chimney stack.

Corrugated iron abounds.

A hopeful rowan tree on the more modern part of the building. A slow inching of decay, and nature taking over.

Some of the outbuildings, in much worse condition than the house.

The outbuildings, and the hill and sheep pen above.

A rather random post.

View of the house from the outbuildings.

One thing the area isn't lacking, is water.

Tyre tracks and water and decay.

That beautifully maintained sheep fold on the hill.

We walked on up the hill a way, to see if we could see into the next valley, but time pressure and weather turned us back.

The clouds gathering above hills and heather.

Making our way back past Eilio. This little place touched me for its massive decay together with its ability to hang on. These places are slipping through our fingers. The hills must have been alive with voices once.

The weather was really closing in by the time we were heading back to the car. On a nice day these places seem benign, but they can become dangerous very quickly.