Bethesda to Cwm Eigiau: Tracing a Fatal Journey

On January 9th, 1865, three men set off from Bangor to walk to the Cwm Eigiau quarry, some 500 metres above sea level on the edge of the Carneddau mountains. It seems likely that they had left the quarry on the Saturday to spend Sunday at home with their families and attending church, before returning on Monday. They had been travelling back and forth between the two places for around two months, working at fitting up machinery at the quarry, so this must have been a familiar journey for them. Walking across the high Carneddau in the depths of winter, though, can easily be fatal when the weather is bad.

Watch a video of the walk here.

The men started from Bangor; they worked at the Menai Foundry in Hirael, a business which belonged to John Owen & Co. until the 1950s, but is now National Tyres & Autocare. William Jones, 44, was a smith. Owen Jones, 50, was a millwright; in the 1861 census he’s described as a ‘pattern maker in the iron foundry’. William Owen was also a millwright, the son of the boss.

They reached Bethesda through a combination of walking and lifts, stopping at Halfway-house for a glass of ale. On reaching Bethesda they took two or three glasses at the Ship Inn (the location of the Ship is uncertain), before passing through the Pant Dreiniog quarry - now a grassed area tight against the centre of Bethesda. William Jones having bought 3 shillings worth of rum in the Ship Inn, for the road, as it were, they then stopped at the George Inn - Y Sior - for more ale, and a bite to eat of the food they had in their pockets.

Y Siôr, on the Carneddi Road, Bethesda. I'd hoped to be able to drop in for a drink - non-alcoholic - but this wouldn't have been practical with the dogs, and even less practical since the place doesn't open until 4 on a Friday. The then landlady of the George Inn, Mrs Parry, remembered the men's visit and described William Jones as 'a little worse for drink.' Owen Jones, although he had drunk as least as much, did not seem to be affected.

When they left the inn it had started to rain heavily. William Jones popped back to light his pipe and left the other two men waiting outside; after a time William Owen went to fetch him, and found him sitting by the fire chattering with the landlady. (The accounts aren't entirely clear as to whether this was the landlady of the George Inn, or another house.)

 

We walked up out of Bethesda on a beautiful, fresh spring day, that must have been vastly different to the freezing rain that the three men encountered in 1865. Some of great slate quarries can be seen in the distance. A quick glance at the 1861 census shows the majority of people living here were employed as slate quarrymen. We passed a man on the walk up here who said 6000 people used to be employed in the quarries.

 

 

 Either we slightly missed our way here, or, I think, it was just that the footpath access wasn't great. Two footpaths converge here and we were coming up the path that goes through the gate just out of sight on the right of the picture, not up the defined track on the left. The gate was padlocked closed. Next time I think the other route might be easier. It seemed rather apt, though, that this route took us past a tiny hillfort called Pen y Gaer, since we live under the shadow of the larger Pen y Gaer on the other side of the mountains.

 

 

Looking back down over Bethesda, and, I think, over the site of the Pant Dreiniog Quarry, which you could hardly tell was once an industrial landscape.

Passing Moel Faban, with its traces of Iron Age settlement.

Walking up the track past the hills Llefn and Gyrn. The newspaper articles relating the story of the three men refer to the 'Llanbedr Road' - where the path splits either side of Carnedd Gwenllian to take you either down to Llanbedr or across to Cwm Eigiau - and looking at the old maps it's easy to discern a whole network of ways that have essentially become lost to the modern world. These paths are used by walkers, but it's apparent that before the advent of the combustion engine and the need for tarmac, in some ways our travel in this area of the world was far less hampered by geographical barriers like mountains. The peaks are criss-crossed with roads, if you're only willing or able to use leg power instead of wheels.

 

 

On the edge of Gyrn, we stopped for a moment's rest in a small quarry. Perhaps the three men might have found shelter here. The accounts tell of the men sheltering in a pen, and of Owen Jones and William Jones begging William Owen for a drop of the rum they had with them, because they were so cold and tired. It sounds as if William Owen had offered to carry the rum because he was afraid of how affected the men were by drink, although there's no testimony to William Owen's level of intoxication. At times he also carried Owen Jones' bag.

 

Walking past Gyrn, which looks as if it were made simply by dropping down a heap of rubble.

 

In places the track up along the side of Drosgl, towards Bera Bach, is very good indeed, and looks as if it's been made to take vehicles of some kind. 

 

Heading up to Bera Bach. If we had been three men making for Cwm Eigiau in a storm, we would have carried on around the edge, but I've never been up Bera Bach before so I decided to go up to the top.

 Looking back down the broad valley towards Bethesda.

 

 

 Reaching the top of Bera Bach, which, like so many of these Carneddau peaks, is littered with fractured stone.

 

 

 It's thought that once the mountains of Eryri were as high as the Himalayas are now, so what we're seeing in these tumbled heaps of stone are the deep insides of once huge mountains, broken down over millennia by the ravages of water and frost.

 

 

 For a long time we didn't feel as if we were gaining much height, but it was a steady climb from Bethesda, and a steeper one past the edge of Drosgl. Suddenly on Bera Bach, 807m, we seemed to be at a proper mountain elevation.

 

 

Looking from Bera Bach towards Carnedd Llewelyn. The newspaper reports about the tragedy made much of the men crossing Carnedd Llewelyn, which is only about 20 metres lower than the top of Yr Wyddfa, but in fact they would have gone around the edge and never got quite that high. The newspapers seem to be using 'Carnedd Llewelyn' as a catch-all for the whole area.

 

 

 Bera Mawr on the left, beyond Bera Bach, with Llwytmor rising beyond. Ironically, Bera Mawr is actually lower than Bera Bach.

 

 I have always loved these dark mountain pools that sit up on the flat peat land between the peaks, with their astonishing range of colour mixing sky blue and a peaty black, the yellow-green reflections of the ravaged grass, and the ochre of slabs of stone.

 

 

 Another mountain pool with a deceptive layer of sediment. Sometimes the dogs plunge into these and discover they're deeper than they expect. In wintery conditions you have to look out for these under the crust of snow.

 

 

 Heading up towards Yr Aryg and leaving Bera Bach behind. The view of Ynys Môn was discernable to the naked eye, and at times we could see the full length of the Menai Strait, but it was so hazy that it's hard to make out in photos.

 

 

 Reaching Yr Aryg, just west of Carnedd Gwenllian (formerly Carnedd Uchaf). Just beyond here the road splits, the left fork taking one down to Pen y Gaer and into Llanbedr, and the right branching off to Cwm Eigiau.

 

 

 The splintered top of Yr Aryg, at 866 metres, isn't regarded as a mountain in its own right, but it feels enough like one when you're up there.

 

 

It's a bleak and beautiful wilderness up here. On the side of Yr Aryg, with Owen Jones out in front, William Jones and William Owen were caught by such a violent squall of wind that it threw them to the ground. William Owen recounted winds that pitched them 'some yards distant,' and spoke of having to cling to the heather to stop himself from being blown away. Once they were passing over the top of the great hump of land and reaching the eastern side, with the cliffs of Dulyn and Melynllyn nearby, there would have been a very real fear of being blown over the drop.

 

 

It seems the trio had passed Yr Aryg, coming to what's described as the '“gate” of the hill', probably where the path splits around Carnedd Gwenllian. They had a discussion on whether they were on the right road, and carried on a little way towards Cwm Eigiau, but somehow William Owen ended up out in front of the other two men. How this happened isn't really addressed. William Owen is supposed to have said 'I made the best of my way, thinking that they would do the same.' It's hard to know if this was a case of being tired of walking with two reluctant travellers, of William Owen simply getting to a point where he was most concerned about his own safety, if they argued about the way, or if they just became separated as each tried to progress through the storm. However it happened, William Owen lost the other two men.

He arrived safely at the Cwm Eigiau quarry by half past five, after night had fallen, no doubt vastly relieved to be somewhere with warmth and shelter at last after a terrifying experience on the hills. The other men didn't arrive. The following Tuesday was too stormy for anyone to venture over the mountain for news, and a letter he wrote on Thursday to report the incident was miscarried. His next letter reached Bangor on Saturday. A succession of men went out searching, including quarrymen from Cwm Eigiau, fifteen men from the Pant Dreiniog quarry with their overseer R Owens, and 35 men from Caebraichcafn quarry with their overseer Mr Francis. John Owen, the owner of the Menai Foundry, also joined search efforts.

 

 

William Jones must have turned back after William Owen became separated. It's unclear whether all three men lost each other or if William Jones and Owen Jones continued together for a while. At any rate, William Jones must have decided to make his way either back towards Bethesda or towards the junction of the roads between Llanbedr and Cwm Eigiau. On Friday, 24th February, forty-six days after he went missing, his body was found on the top of Yr Aryg. He was described as being found ‘lying on a heap of stones, exposed to the storm, without any shelter whatever near him; his eyes and mouth open, his head and back frozen to the ground and a part of one of his shoes torn’. Perhaps he was wandering and lost, because one of the searchers stated that  he was ‘between 100 and 200 yards from the path which would lead him to his destination’. William Jones was buried on Monday, February 27th, in the Bangor New Cemetery. He left behind a widow, and a daughter by a former wife.
 
Owen Jones' body wasn't found until the Sunday, the 2nd of April. Shepherd William Jones from Bron y Gadair, a relatively well-to-do farm nestled under the side of Pen y Gadair above Llanbedr-y-Cennin, went up onto the mountain with a lad and his dogs. They were following the path from Llanbedr to Bethesda, but the dogs apparently caught sight or scent something half a mile away, and raced off over the snow. The lad with them was taken so ill at the sight of the body that the shepherd didn't report the find until the next day. Then he travelled to Bangor, with his dog in tow, to inform John Owen of the Menai Foundry, and the relatives of the dead man. The body was brought down to the Victoria Inn in Bethesda, although it was frozen so hard one witness said it 'was like a piece of solid ice.' An adze had to be used to recover his pocket watch.
 
Owen Jones was buried in the Bangor New Cemetery on the Tuesday following, leaving a widow and seven young children. For their benefit an entertainer known as Professor Whitworth put on one of his 'unequalled entertainments', involving magic, ventriloquism, and 'laughable chemical experiments'. He was advertised as having performed in front of Queen Victoria, the Emperor and Empress of the French, and other crowned heads of Europe, and the performance raised £17.19.7 for the widow and her family. (Professor Whitworth seems to be a story entirely in his own right - read through some fascinating newspaper stories about him here, included his being jailed for larceny, his 'homaeopathic' charitable giving, and his complete inability to speak Welsh.)

Another meandering mountaintop pool.

 

 

Walking towards the edge of Carnedd Gwenllian, looking back towards Yr Aryg.

 

 

 Bethesda is far in the distance now, disappearing into the haze.

 These rocks struck me as we walked around Carnedd Gwenllian, with their vertical splits, but diagonal lines of erosion across them.

 

 After passing Carnedd Gwenllian we were finally on the eastern side of the Carneddau, and we stopped for a bit of lunch. From reading the accounts of the men's crossing it seems that this was where William Owen was battling through raging wind.

 

Although the footpath from Carnedd Gwenllian to Cwm Eigiau is quite clear on the map, it doesn't seem very evident on the ground. The path that passes from Drum over Foel Fras, Carnedd Gwenllian, Foel Grach, and Carnedd Llewlyn shows as a great scar across the tops, but we had to branch off towards the south east. We ended up some way east of the path, I think because of a natural inclination not to gain too much unnecessary height on the edge of Foel Grach. We were far enough from the cliffs of Dulyn and Melynllyn that it wasn't a worry. The land is quite boggy in areas, though.

 

The view down Pant y Griafolen, with Dulyn hidden below the nearby cliffs. It was so hazy that nothing much beyond this edge of the Conwy Valley was visible. 

 

 

Still cutting across the east side of Foel Grach, and the boggy land starts to become punctured with rocks.

 

 

 It seems incredible that such a small stream can carve out such a deep channel through the peat.

 

 

 The land is much drier here, and feels like a very special place to walk through, with all the split rocks scattered over the yellowed grass.

 

 This little series of rocks always makes me think of a dragon's spines, poking up through the earth.

 

 At last we're coming down into Cwm Eigiau. Although this valley is high and remote, it's considerably more sheltered than the mountains above. The quarry can be seen on the other side.

 

 With the sun setting by around 16:20, it was night time by the time William Owen was walking down here, exhausted at the end of his journey. It's not exactly a gruelling hill to walk down, but it is hard, with all the tufts of grass and patches of moss and rushes, and the streams splitting the land.

 

 

 Closer to the quarry, the levels and spoil tips can easily be seen. Although the quarry is a small one it still dwarfs the buildings on the site.

 It's impossible to know which building William Owen would have staggered to. Perhaps the work day had ended when he arrived around 17:30. Hopefully he arrived to a warm room and hot food and drink. One set of what seems to be lodgings here still has bits of render left on the walls.

 

 

 A view from near the wheel pit over the ruins of what must have been the workshops, perhaps where the men were fitting up the machinery.

 

 

The path home at last, a long walk down the valley to the car park beyond the lake.

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.

___

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.