The Lost Cottages - Siglan, Llyn Cowlyd, Dolgarrog

The farmhouse of Siglan sits high above Dyffryn Conwy on the south side of Moel Eilio, just east of the end of Llyn Cowlyd. Cowlyd has the distinction of being the deepest lake in North Wales, at 229 feet deep. Some of this depth is artificial, however; the lake was converted to a reservoir in 1897, and further deepened with a higher dam of 45 feet in 1921. 

Cowlyd possibly features in the Mabinogion as a valley inhabited by the Owl of Cwm Cawlwyd, although the exact location of this valley is disputed. Sioned Davies, in her recent translation, suggests an area between Llanrwst and Capel Curig is most likely, while other accounts locate it at the modern Cowlyd. The ancient Owl of Cwm Cawlwyd had overseen the growth of three forests of trees in the valley, the first one destroyed by men. Regardless of whether the place is overseen by an ancient owl, Cowlyd is quite magical in its own right, perched high above the Conwy Valley and approached by a winding road that runs through lands rarely seen by the inhabitants below.

For years Siglan must have looked out over an unparalleled view. Change would have come with the building and later expansion of the reservoir, and the great black pipe which takes water down to Dolgarrog. Still, the house sits in a wild and beautiful place.

On the map the house name is spelt 'Siglen,' which can mean bog or marsh. Although I'm generally going by the map names, in most censuses and other documents it is spelt 'Siglan.'

I wonder what the original inhabitants would have made of this huge metal pipeline stretching directly before the house? 

The house looks like a picture postcard, with the curving driveway approaching through rich green land. This home was one of the last to be abandoned up here, with the last occupant leaving in 1959.

An outbuilding is slowly collapsing to the east end of the house.

In the doorway to this outbuilding cobbles can be seen under the tumbled masonry.

The outbuilding is split into two, with a window high in the dividing wall. This would seem to indicate the eastern cell is a later extension, but there's no sign of this in the front wall of the building.

The wide lintel rests entirely at the west end on a single upright. The stones above have fallen in recent years. A photo on the Coflein website, from 2003, shows the stones still in situ. Perhaps, with its wide doorway, this cell was a cart house. 

The original ridge line is seen on the east end wall of the house, with a few slates, and even a ridge tile, still adhered to the wall. 

The house evidently had a porch, which has now gone. A photo from 2008 shows the door still in existence. 

The lower window has been blocked with a metal panel. 

The interior of the western window frames have gone, but the outer frames are still there. The chimney above is in quite good condition.

From the front, the house is almost neatly symmetrical, but not quite. 

The doorstep into the house looks a little askew but is still in situ. No wonder the front door has gone, since there's no longer frame on the right side, where it was hinged. 

Inside, the ghostly remains of the interior are present, with a large hole in the roof above. According to the photos on the sites previously linked, the roof has gone through stages of repair, with corrugated iron put on in place of slate, but trying to keep the house weatherproof is probably like fighting the tide.

See a short video of the interior here. 

At the west end of the house an upstairs room partition is partly hanging from the roof, unsupported in the main from below. Layers of peeling paint and wallpaper can be seen on the wood boards.

The big fireplace downstairs is a nicely solid construction, with a well milled stone lintel and some brickwork remaining.

The remains of a piece of furniture, perhaps a chair or settee, lies on the floor. This looks rather too modern to have been associated with occupation. Perhaps it was brought up by someone who made something of a den of the place after it was abandoned.

To the left of the main fireplace, marks can be seen where deep shelves would have sat in the alcove.

Upstairs, above the main fireplace, is a smaller bedroom fireplace, and a little of the floor hidden under detritus fallen from above.

The roof above, with the slates coming off the laths.

A floorboard, unsupported and rotting, resembles something from an undersea shipwreck. 

More parts of internal partition hang from the roof above. 

There seem to be layers and layers of wallpaper here on the wall, unless it were some kind of multilayered wall covering. 

High under the rafters some white painted plaster still remains on the laths. 

The floorboards here have lost support at one end, and are starting to collapse.

 

The interior is almost like a cutaway diagram, showing how the wooden internals were made.

Graffiti on the walls in the corner of the house.

To the left of the front door is this small panelled space which looks as if it used to have something attached to the middle of it.

The windowframe to the left of the door remains, although the glass is gone and the windowsill is damaged. The panel on the outside is held on by this rusty piece of iron.

In the back wall, a single tiny window looks out onto the slope.

Rubble lies on some of the remaining first floor.

A small fireplace sits at the east end of the house, perhaps for a small parlour.

In the downstairs ceiling the laths can be seen where plaster has fallen.

Part of a rusting bedframe lies on the first floor joists.

There's a large hole in the roof, but some of the laths from the upstairs ceiling can still be seen.

At the back of the house, a doorway opens onto a ruined extension.

A more modern brick fireplace sits at the back of this room. The extension was apparently only one storey.

There is a part-blocked doorway to the left, and a possible window to the right, with a fallen joist across the middle of the room.

The back wall of the original house shows significant damage.

Details of the brick fireplace in the extension.

A lintel remains over the part-blocked doorway, and the original roof-line can be seen on the back of the house.

 

 

At the west end of the house is another small extension, probably an outbuilding. A photograph from 2003 on the Coflein site shows this outbuilding as single storey and roofed with corrugated iron.

The shape of the outbuilding's roof-line is quite clear in this photo.

Inside the outbuilding is an L-shaped concrete kerb.

This blocked up opening in the western wall is rather intriguing. It looks as if there were a smaller opening directly under the larger one.

Looking out through the doorway of the outbuilding, with slate sill in situ. The little toilet outhouse is visible on the other side of the track, in the right of the doorway.

This toilet outbuilding is in a state of slow collapse, but the fact of its existence is relatively unusual compared with other cottages I've visited so far.

Across the track, to the left of the toilet, is a certain amount of rubble and debris.

Looking back across the track from the toilet, the western outbuilding can be seen, as well as a small stream, bridged over where it crosses the track, which runs directly under the toilet.

The west end of the house, with render and a chimney in apparently good condition.

At the west end of the house front a great crack runs down through the wall.

Above the door can be seen the porch roof-line, and insulators for an electrical supply.

A closer look at the insulators above the front door.

Another first floor addition on the front of the house, possibly, again, connected to an electrical supply.

The two eastern windows. The window catch can still be seen on the upper window frame.

A large walled yard in front of the house.

The view of the house from the west end.

From the outside of this western outbuilding it's possible to see three small blocked up windows at the bottom, and the one larger one above.

A little way from the house - Siglan is out of frame and behind the water pipe at the back of the photo - is the tiny ruin of Siloh Independent Chapel, a Congregational Chapel which is still marked as such on the 1888-1913 map. 

The chapel stands at grid reference SH 7440 6417. Coflein mentions that the chapel was 'built in 1824 & again in 1890. The chapel closed in 1923 and has since been demolished.' According to a Facebook commenter, 'Siloh Chapel was completely intact until the late 1960s when it was taken down to the current level. It was around the same time that the road alongside it direct to the dam was built. Prior to that all traffic to Llyn Cowlyd went up the road past Siglen.'

A little west of both chapel and Siglan farmhouse sits Llyn Cowlyd. The reservoir must be a little larger than when Siglan was built, but the lake would have still been there, beautiful, and perhaps a little more wild.