The Lost Cottages - Cwm Cowlyd, Dolgarrog Parish

Cwm Cowlyd is a beautiful little cottage part-way along Cowlyd lake up above Trefriw, on the west side of the Conwy Valley. It's a place that I fell in love with as soon as I saw it. The thought of living in such a place, with the lake spreading to the north-east and south-west, and the mountains rising up on either side, seemed idyllic. Of course that's an idealised notion. It would have been a hard life in this place, especially during winter or at difficult times. It would have been a long way from any towns or villages, although close to a small group of neighbours. But for hundreds of years, it seems, very little would have changed in this place, and the sounds and scents of wind and nature would have been enduring.

In records the cottage seems always to be referred to simply as 'Cowlyd'. It does seem highly likely, though, that the Cowlyd of the records is the Cwm Cowlyd of the 1888-1913 map. There is no other house in the area likely to have that name. Perhaps the house is referred to as Cwm Cowlyd at times to distinguish it from the lake nearby. The 1816 Robert Dawson map names the place 'Cwm Cawlwyd' (the lake is also marked as 'Cawlwyd'.)

A video of the place can be seen here. The house is at Ordnance Survey grid reference SH 7293 6323.

From down nearer the lake shore, the house just peeks up over the curve of the slope. When the house was built the lake would have been significantly smaller, and Cwm Cowlyd sat quite near the north-east end. The first dam which turned the lake into a reservoir wasn't built until 1897, at least two hundred years into the house's history. A second dam was built later, increasing the reservoir's capacity and size.

Walking south-west, before you reach the house you come to a small series of outbuildings and pens which were probably associated with the home.

A couple of small pens stand to the south of the track.

The valley of Cwm Cowlyd is possibly the same valley mentioned in the Mabinogion, the home of the ancient Owl of Cwm Cowlyd, who speaks of the valley once being covered in trees which were uprooted by men. Three forests grew in the place, one after another, but there are few trees in the valley today. Sheep grazing, in part, will have altered the landscape.

The western sun made photographs hard to take, but you can see what might be a pen, with a quite intact outbuilding just beyond. A satellite view of the area shows the layout of the structures quite clearly.

Looking into the ruins of a possible outbuilding at the north-east end of the range.

This part seems to be a low-walled pen rather than an outbuilding.

Like many of these earlier buildings, this one seems to have a lip of stone protruding from the bottom of the wall.

A lot of this area is so ruined it's hard to tell what the structure would have looked like originally.

This end wall is rather nicely made of quite squared-off stone. It's hard to tell if the area to the left was an enclosed building or just a pen. Perhaps these buildings were built later than the house.

Another possible little pen in the range of structures.

This corner shows an interesting construction in that the stones seem to have been built out and over the corner space a little. Perhaps originally there was something of a sheltering overhang or low roof here.

A nicely defined doorway into one of the structures.

The doorway from the other side.

Looking back towards the most intact of these ruins.

Looking north east, back along Cwm Cowlyd towards the edge of the Conwy Valley.

The lake meets the roughly straight edge of the dam today, but the lake end would have been rather closer to the buildings in the past.

Looking south west along the lake, with the house in the distance.

The track in front of the pens, going towards the house. I read somewhere that parts of the track may have been paved, but I can't find the source any more!

This little nook at the side of the track looks almost like an old fashioned passing place.

A little further south west there are more substantial pens to be found.

The track enters a well-walled area, with a high wall to the left and sheepfolds to the right.

The following photos are all of the pens, but there seems little point in captioning each of them.

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This little D-shaped pen is something of a mystery, since it appears to have no way in or out.

This area has obviously been used in much more recent years, and is possibly still in use, which probably explains why these walls are still so intact.

The track continues between high walls which end at the end of the sheepfold.

Finally we're approaching the house, after walking past the pens and outbuildings.

The earliest mention I've found of the house so far is in the Llanbedr y Cennin parish baptism records. Owen, son of Rowland Williams of Cowllyd and Catherine Edward his wife, was baptised on what appears to be the 28th December, 1691. Since the available Llanbedr parish records don't go back much further than this, it's entirely possible that the house is still older than this. It seems equally possible that inhabitants may have gone to other churches from this location, like Llanrhychwyn or Trefriw. These churches would have been closer to the house, but I haven't yet looked at their records.

In the early 1700s it seems that a number of the children of Robert Ewan, or Evan, of Cowlyd are being married. In 1708 John Parry of Crafnant marries Margaret of 'Cowlwyd. In 1714 Richard ab Ewan of Eilio marries Sarah vch Robert of 'Cowlwyd', and in 1716 Ewan ap Robert Ewan of 'Cowlwyd' marries Elizabeth Rowland of Garreg Wen. Eilio is just over the hill from Cwm Cowlyd, and Garreg Wen is the next farm down the valley from Cwm Cowlyd.

There are two main buildings on this little plot of land; the house to the right and an outbuilding to the left.

The house seems to have survived better than some, despite being uninhabited since about 1900, but has apparently declined a lot in recent years. The Coflein page for the property shows roof timbers, and many more of the slates in place, in 2003, compared to how it looks in 2021.

The place seems to have been in pretty much continuous occupation, by families young enough to be having their children baptised, at least all the way through to the end of the 18th century. After this point the house isn't mentioned for baptisms in the Llanbedr y Cennin records, but that might just reflect the inhabitants starting to use a different church or chapel. From 1824 services were being held in the house of Brwynog Uchaf at the east end of the lake, and then at the nearby Siloh Chapel that was built later, which would have been very convenient for Cwm Cowlyd. There is a little more about the chapel in my post here.

 

A baptism entry for 1747, for David the son of Thomas Williams of Cowlyd and Anne his wife, has been annotated later to include the information that David was buried on December 3, 1819. At that time David was living in Cedryn, another upland house just over the mountainous divide near Llyn Eigiau. It seems quite common for these families to keep to their upland lives, being born, marrying, and dying from houses in quite a close area to one another.

The outbuilding has lost its roof, but the walls and gable ends are all intact.

Timbers lie on the ground outside, either from the house or the outbuilding.

Adjoining the house to the north end is a little outbuilding which Coflein lists as a small stable or barn.

Inside the small northern outbuilding.

The view across the reservoir is quite beautiful, but it would have been smaller when the house was lived in so a lot of the lake to the left would have been grassland.

A lovely stone-edged channel leads past the outbuilding and under the enclosure wall towards the lake. There are a lot of rushes in the area but this channel indicates it would have been better drained when the place was lived in and maintained.

The doorway to the detached outbuilding is facing the lake, and the stonework still looks very solid.

The doorway still retains stone flags.

The north-east end of the outbuilding is rather more ruined, but you can still see a single window high up in the wall.

On the ground under the window there are still the remains of joists or roof timbers.

A close up of the working on the outbuilding timbers.

The other end of the timbers. There doesn't seem to be any ironwork associated with the wood, so perhaps they were pegged.

Looking back out through the doorway, and joist holes can be seen in the wall above, implying that at least this end of the outbuilding had a first floor. It's harder to see if there are joist holes in the other end of the building.

The view from the outbuilding over over the lake, and the cliffs of Marian Mawr.

Finally at the house, and a partly blocked up window is evident to the left of the doorway.

When the census starts in 1841 the house is lived in by Morris Owens, 25, an agricultural labourer, with his wife Margaret, also 25, sons John, 4, and Evan, 1, and a female servant, Jane Thomas, 25. By 1851 the occupation has changed to Thomas Roberts, 34, a farmer of mountainous land, wife Elizabeth, 37, son William, 2, and daughter Elen, 5 months; all but Elen were born in Llanllechid. Elen was born in Dolgarrog parish - possibly in the house. They also have a general servant, John Owens, who is only 13, who was born in Trefriw.

This south-east face of the house is relatively ruined, partly owing to the collapse of the fireplace at the end of the house.

In 1861 the house has apparently changed hands again, and is in the occupation of Thomas Williams, 30, listed as having a 'High land farm of 495 acres employing one boy.' His wife Elizabeth is 26. Living with them are son William, 4, son John, 2, and son Thomas, 6 months. The 'one boy' mentioned above is also living with them - 15 year old Zachariah Jones, a shepherd who was born in Llanrwst. Perhaps this is the same Zachariah Jones who is listed in the 1851 census for Betws y Coed, where he is five years old, born in Llanrwst, the son of a lead miner, and one of five siblings.

The space between house and outbuilding is scattered with rubble. It seems likely there would be cobbles under the grass and stone.

The census for 1871 shows a change has occurred. Thomas Williams of the previous census has died. His wife Elizabeth Williams is now a widow of 37, farming 490 acres of sheep pasture. It seems likely Thomas's death was recent, because her youngest child is only one year old. She is living with son William, 14, a shepherd, son John, 12, son Elis, 5, son Robert, 3, and daughter Mary, who is one.

 

Garreg Wen, the next farm down the valley, is also occupied by a widow at this time, a woman of 61 with a 29 year old son and two servants. But by 1881 Elizabeth Williams had moved into Garreg Wen with William, 24, daughter Jane, 17 (it's unknown where Jane was on the night of the census in 1871, when she must have been about 7), son Elis, 15, and daughter Mary, 11. She is farming 200 acres and employing one boy. Cowlyd is still occupied by her son John, a farmer, 22 years old, and Robert, 13. They also have a domestic servant, Ellen Thomas, who is 34. Interestingly, by 1891 John Williams appears to be married to Ellen Thomas - or, at least, the house is occupied by John Williams, 32, his wife Ellen Williams, 44, and son Thomas, 4. The two censuses disagree on Ellen's birthplace - in 1881 this was listed as Betws y Coed but in 1891 it was listed as Bethesda. These discrepancies are quite common, though. John Williams, too, has his birthplace shift from Dolgarrog to Llanbedr.

According to a descendant of Elizabeth and Thomas Williams, Elizabeth, nee Jones, had been the youngest of seven children. Her husband Thomas died at the age of 40 in 1870, and it was after this that she bought the farm at Garreg Wen. By 1891, however, she had moved down into the valley. 

It seems that the beginning of the 20th century brought the end of occupation for Cwm Cowlyd. In 1901 the census shows the house as unoccupied, although a Welsh Coast Pioneer and Review for North Cambria article of 19th March, 1908, implies the house was lived in then. The story, about the water supply from the reservoir, says 'the members of the Board met the tenants of their estate, regarding the rents of Garregwen and Cwm Cowlyd.' It also includes the titbit that a 'flat-bottomed boat [was] kindly lent by the tenant of Cwm Cowlyd farm'. Because this is between censuses, though, there's no record of the tenant's name. By 1911 the place is uninhabited again. It is, of course, hard to know if there was any more off-again, on-again inhabitation of the place after this.

 

Garreg Wen, by contrast, did continue in occupation through to 1911, by farmer William Thomas and his family. The house has been completely demolished, though, and almost no trace remains.

Inside the house, plenty of roof timbers still survive. Coflein's 2003 survey show these timbers still in situ, with more of the roof surviving, including a cross beam which probably marked the extent of the crogloft platform. The partly blocked up window can be seen in this photo. It's hard to imagine a family living together in this tiny space with it ruined as it is. Perhaps with the crogloft in place it would have looked more accommodating.

A ceramic roof ridge tile lies on the ground. The slates are quite coarse, so are perhaps quite old, but the ridge tiles were probably a newer addition.

Looking out through the partially blocked window over the lake.

There seems to be a tiny window very high up in this gable end, probably to provide a small amount of light to the crogloft.

Low down on this end wall this almost looks like another tiny window - except it seems too low - or tiny fireplace - except there could be no chimney, with the window above it. Perhaps this was just a storage nook, or simply a large stone in the wall with smaller ones having fallen out from beneath.

The floor of the house is littered with slates from the collapsed roof.

A blocked up door on the south-west side of the building, which leads through to a little ruined structure that could have been a dairy or a small adjoining outbuilding.

Comparing this timber with the Coflein photos, it seems likely that this was one side of the A frame which held the roof. This piece of wood is almost 94" long.

Looking back towards the doorway, across more tumbled timbers.

The fireplace has collapsed entirely. The Coflein photos show what looks like the remains of a wooden beam in the rubble, which maybe have been the beam over the fireplace. As soon as it rotted through the whole chimney would have collapsed.

One of the carved sockets in the beams. These sockets are about 5" long by 2" wide.

Another socket of similar dimensions.

Comparing this with the Coflein photos, this seems to be the right-hand diagonal beam from the A frame, as you face the lake-end of the house.

Another slate in the rubble, just over 14" long by almost 7" wide.

A whole slew of roof slates have landed here, some of them seemingly still roughly in position.

There are two jutting stones on the end wall opposite the fireplace, which took the weight of crossbeams which presumably formed the end of the crogloft. These can be seen in situ in the Coflein photos.

A little of the wood still rests on the right-hand stone.

An upright stone to the right of the partly-blocked window. Perhaps it was just a convenient shape.

The partly blocked window, with timbers leaning against it.

A full view of the end of the house, with joist holes for the crogloft platform just above where the wooden beams would have rested on the jutting stones, and the small unexplained nook in the wall at bottom centre.

 

 

 Looking out through the door over the lake.

At the fireplace end, there seem to have been two recesses in the wall to the left of the fire.

The fireplace is completely collapsed, and there's no sign of the possible wooden beam that can been seen in the Coflein photos. It seems more likely the fire was supported by a wooden beam, purely because a big stone lintel can't just disappear, unless it were taken to be used elsewhere.

I wonder if there could be a bread oven in the thick wall to the right of the fireplace. If there is, it is hidden under the rubble.

In the wall to the left of the fire is a small blocked up window.

Back outside again, looking along the north-east side of the detached outbuilding.

Standing outside the outbuilding looking towards the house, although the late evening sun is rather spoiling the shot.

 

 

 Outside the little yard that encircles the outbuilding - the house forms one wall of this yard. The hole for the water drainage channel can just be seen to the left.

 

The south-east end of the house is banked up a little way with an earth and stone wall, presumably to support it against the drop in the land.

A terrace of built-up land is nearby.

Looking up at the end of the house, and the tiny crogloft window.

On the wall at the side of the house, and the blocked doorway can be seen into the little space outside which may have been a dairy or other building.

It seems that once there were pine trees planted near the house, as with so many of these houses, probably to give a little shelter from the wind. The trees haven't survived, though.

This is a rather curious space outside the house. It is relatively unusual for these houses to have more than one door, and the little diagonal arrangement of wall to the right is interesting, with the roof coming down over it.

It does seem likely that there was some kind of structure here, given the line of stones coming out at right angles to the wall here. Perhaps the roof came out to cover it. I've mentioned it may be a dairy because Coflein suggests a similar arrangement at Maen Eira, between Llyn Eigiau and Dulyn, could be for that purpose. In Maen Eira this extension is at the fireplace end of the house.

Looking along the back wall of the house, towards the remains of the roof.

The odd diagonal arrangement of stones between the end of the house and the adjoining field wall.

The door into the possible dairy, with a glimpse of the remaining wall structure to the left.

 

The remaining slates are very coarse and thick, and seem to have been cemented together at some point. Perhaps this explains why the cottage roof and timbers survived for so long after the place was abandoned, although it would have added considerable weight to the roof.

Looking at the roof from a higher angle.

 

 

 The gable end shows a lip of stone raised from the height of the wall, which I have seen suggested to be indicative of the roof being thatched in the past. Given the age of the house it seems certain it would have been thatched originally.

 

Looking along the length of the house towards the collapsed fireplace, with the scant remaining wall of the possible dairy visible to the left.

 

Some of these slates are as much as in inch thick, nothing like the thin and carefully finished slates we're more used to today.

 

 

Looking back towards the house from the south west. There are a lot of rushes here, and the 1888-1913 map indicates there would have been a well in this area, although I couldn't find a sign of it.