This relatively intact cottage sits atop a hill down in the middle of the Conwy Valley, on the west side of the river very near Ty'n y Groes. Originally it looks like the public access to the cottage would have been from the east side, up the hill from the lanes between the Groes Inn and Tal y Cafn bridge. On the 1888-1913 map there also appears to be a track leading from the large house of Tan y Bryn, on the main road, up to the house. Now there is a public footpath running across the hill, directly through the site of the building. The cottage is at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7797 7289.
A video of the house can be seen here.
The house looks quite imposing, with so much of the walls and one of the chimney stacks still standing, but really it's quite a small property. This west side of the building is actually the rear aspect.
According to the censuses of 1841 and 1871, this property was a gamekeeper's cottage, and appears occupied by three different gamekeepers in these two censuses and the 1846 tithe map.
The house appears to have had three windows in the back, but the right hand one is blocked up.
Actually this window is for symmetry only. There's no sign of it on the other side of the wall.
The back window through into the centre room. The plaster on the outside walls has been lined to looked like dressed stone.
The south end of the house still has quite a bit of render, but the stonework underneath can be seen, especially the large corner blocks.
The front of the house is roughly symmetrical, although there is more frontage to the left of the bay doorway and windows than to the right. The place has a Georgian look, with its large rectangular windows, and seems to be built with quarried stone.
The track on the 1888-1913 map leading directly down to the house of Tan y Bryn would suggest that this place is connected with that house in some way. Tan y Bryn has the appearance of being an expensive home, but it appears on the censuses inhabited by farmers. In 1841 a female servant and an agricultural labourer are registered at the property. The situation continues in a similar vein, and by 1871 there are two servants. Then in 1881 there's a 'farm bailiff,' two servants, and a dairy maid. But 1891 the head of the house is a 'warehouse manager' and even has a cook.
All of this is interesting and might chime in with the house having an associated gamekeeper's cottage, except for the fact that Llys y Gwynt only appears twice in the census, in 1841 and 1871, both times before Tan y Bryn seems to have come up in the world. There is a building very close to Llys y Gwynt which will be covered in another post, which I speculate may be a farrier's. The jigsaw pieces would seem to fit - a large house down on the main road, with associated gamekeeper's cottage and farrier up on the hill - if it weren't for the fact that Tan y Bryn seems small and unexceptional in the censuses until after Llys y Gwynt seems to have been abandoned. Perhaps, though, Llys y Gwynt has been associated with Tan y Bryn since before the censuses began, and the fortunes of the large house have waxed and waned. Alternatively, perhaps Llys y Gwynt is associated with another landowner entirely.
At the front of the house, a view of the window in the left side and one of the bay windows. The bottoms of these large window openings are falling apart.
At the front of the house, the main door stands at the front of a bay, flanked by two windows, and is overgrown by this massive ivy tree.
The doorframe and hinges are still in place.
A curtain of ivy hangs down over the top of the doorframe inside, with bits of slate and wood from the roof tangled into it, making the door rather unsafe to enter through.
From inside, looking towards the bay entrance, bits of joists can be seen tangled in the ivy.
The roof above seems to be held together largely by ivy. The plaster on the wall stops at the height of the ceiling joists.
In the south wall of this tiny room, to the right of the doorway, is an equally tiny fireplace.
Looking out through the doorway of the small north east room into the main room.
The underneath of the top of the doorway still has some thin painted plaster surviving. The colour looks rather grey here, but was a little more green in reality.
Looking up at the chimney in this north wall dividing the main room from the two small north rooms. A large roof timber looks as if it's teetering on top of the wall.
In the north west corner of the house is a very tiny room, which seems more like a vanity to make the house a pleasing shape than a useful room. Perhaps it was used for storage, as a larder or scullery, conceivably, as a very, very tiny bedroom. The whole layout of the house feels more like something shoehorned into a pretty shell, than a house built for practicality.
The window of this small north western room, which seems absurdly large for the size of the room.
Some laths survive on the window beam, as well as a little beading to the right side.
A close up of the laths on the window beam.
A closer view of the beading above the corner of the window, and a little piece of ironwork near the edge of the opening.
Looking back towards the doorway of this small room you can see how very narrow it is, barely wider than the doorway.
The top of the doorway into the small north west room, from the main room.
On the ground in the doorway to the small room was this end of a glass bottle.
In the main room, the dividing wall between this and the south room is nothing more than rubble.
I'm not quite sure what this nook is in the wall between the two main rooms, but I think it's to the left of the fireplace. This wall seems to be the only place in the house where the main cooking fire could have been located. Presumably the entire chimney stack has collapsed.
Looking across the rubble from the southern room. A little of the original wall structure can be seen to the left of the photo.
The left side of this dividing wall is a little easier to pick out from the rubble.
Against the western wall in the south room, there seems to be a line of stone, unless this is just a coincidentally well lined up piece of rubble.
Looking back towards the bay entrance from the southern room.
It seems that this chunk of stone to the right might be the right side of the big fireplace, in line with the other side on the left side of the photo. The flat recessed slab to the far left was mentioned earlier. Perhaps this flat slab is just the line of the wall.
A nook to the right of the fireplace. In some of these old houses there are shelves to the side of the fire, or a cupboard.
A broken bottle neck in the southern room.
The beam above the window in the southern room, with a few laths and the ends of the nails that fixed them to the beam.
Outside the house again, this is the view of the south end and east facing front. The whole building looks weighed down with ivy.
A wide angle shot shows the whole building in its position on the crest of the hill, with artificially planted scots pines to the north.
Although the area around the house is being encroached on by gorse, it's still fairly clear. There aren't signs of flower beds or other structures near the house.
The north end of the house, sheltered from the weather, shows far less damage to the render.
Another shutter hook to the left of the window. It leads one to wonder if the house spent periods of time uninhabited and shut up.
On the approach to the cottage from the west, at the north end of the garden, I noticed this section of garden wall was more complete than most of it, which has been almost entirely eroded.
The other side of the wall shows the remains of a small structure. Was this a little outbuilding, or perhaps a toilet outhouse?
The land drops off a little to the north where the scots pines are planted, with the stone pushing through the ground.
A view of the house from the north east, with the Carneddau in the background.
To the east of the house was this small piece of concrete in the ground, with four metal tubes embedded in it. I don't know the purpose. The concrete patch was about a foot square.
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