Exploring :: The Ynysypandy Slate Mill

Hi there everyone 😀

In the spirit of finding new places to explore in North Wales we visited the Ynysypandy Slate Mill at Cwmystradllyn on our lodge visit earlier this month.

It is a very atmospheric looking building that someone had posted pictures about in a Facebook group … it was not too far away from us … and it looked like it would be great for some good photos.

One of things that we have found we love about North Wales is all of the quarrying and mining history … especially the old slate landscapes and buildings that are still to be found all over the place … often in the most beautiful and out of the way spots.

This was no different and it was a real treat. We meandered our way down lots of narrow lanes through beautiful scenery … thinking we must be on the wrong track. Then all of a sudden, on the top of a hill, there it was …

For a while we didn’t think we would be able to get a closer look as it’s in a very narrow lane with no parking … but we drove past and managed to find a spot on the side of the road just up the hill …

We weren’t sure how accessible it would be … especially with Martin and his crutches and my 81 year old mum, with a creaky hip, in tow … but we decided we’d have a wander back down the lane to investigate further … passing this small ruined building, surrounded by undergrowth and wild flowers on the way …

… before getting a real good look at the mill itself …

From a bit of internet searching we could see that … 

“The impressive three-storeyed mill, and its surrounding yard, rail-access and water-supply system, was built to serve Gorsedda quarry in 1856-7. It is ingeniously planned so that the natural fall of the site assisted the manufacturing process. An internal pit accommodated an overshot water wheel, supplied by the Henwy stream, and on the south side a long curving ramp brought branches of the railway from Gorsedda quarry into the mill at two different levels, serving the middle and upper floors.

The grand, round-headed openings are closely spaced like a Roman aqueduct, and derive from foundry practice. The eastern gable is surmounted by a decorative feature incorporating a false chimney stack, and the windows were at one time framed. It is one of very few architecturally ambitious buildings in the slate industry of Wales.

The mill specialised in the production of slate slabs for floors, dairies, troughs, urinals, etc. In its heyday, in 1860, it was producing over 2,000 tons per annum, but seven years later production was down to 25 tons per annum (due to the poor quality of the quarried slate) and the business went into liquidation in 1871.

The building provided a venue for eisteddfodau until the roof was removed around 1906. It was conserved by the Snowdonia National Park in 1981 and is accessible to visitors.”

We crossed the old stone bridge …

… and squeezed our way through the kissing gate …

Up close the mill building looked to be very high up … 

It wasn’t looking like it would be easy for us to get up to the top without one heck of a scramble …

As we got closer we could see that it was more accessible than we had first thought … with a series of steps and slopes zig zagging up the mound and, with varying degrees of speed, we all decided we just had to make our way up to the top …

It was definitely worth the effort. The views all around were just spectacular …

… and the mill itself was just something else …

It was almost like being in a colosseum …

Having had a good wander round just soaking up the atmosphere and imagining the place buzzing with activity we made our way back down the steps …

… and back up the lane to the car …

We carried on up the narrow lanes with our next stop being the Tyddyn Mawr Tea Room, which is literally in the middle of nowhere …

We were the only visitors but enjoyed hot chocolate and cake before carrying on a bit further to have a look at the Cwmystradllyn reservoir.

The weather did start to take a bit of a turn at this point and mum stayed in the car whilst Martin and I had a very quick wander …

… before retracing our steps. I couldn’t resist squeezing into the phone box on the way back to try and recreate one of the pictures we had seen hanging on the wall in the cafe … I’m not sure it was my best shot of the day …

It was time to head for home but we couldn’t resist a very quick stop in criccieth to have a look some of the latest yarn bombing …

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Exploring :: Powis Castle NT

Hi there everyone 😀

We had a week with mum at the lodge in June and we started our break with a stop off at Powis Castle on the way … and what a treat it was.

None of us had ever visited before and, other than knowing it wasn’t too far out of our way, we really had no idea what to expect.

Our hearts did drop a bit when we were on approach and got our first view of the castle. It looked beautiful … but it was right at the top of a pretty steep hill.

We were really happy to find that the drive took us pretty much to the top of the hill and there was parking not far from the castle entrance.

It was a lovely day and we decided we would start our visit in the gardens, taking our picnic with us.

The garden is made up of a series of terraces, with some fabulous herbaceous borders and views across the surrounding countryside and back up to the castle.

These were our views from the top terrace …

We opted to have our lunch under the shelter on the aviary terrace… the next terrace down …

Then we were down to the orangery terrace, which was beautiful …

The borders were just stuffed full of gorgeous and huge plants … with everything looking fabulous in the sunshine …

There was also some pretty wicked topiary …

By the time we hit the lower terrace our knees were certainly starting to feel it but there was just so much to see that we couldn’t resist …

In the distance we could see the borders of the croquet lawn and just knew we had to make that one last push … especially when another visitor told us there was a coffee shop down at the bottom 😀

We went via the box walk to the formal garden where we absolutely loved the climbing roses. I would love to do something like this at home …

We were then at the border of the croquet lawn which we’d seen from a distance. It was spectacular …

None of us had ever seen such tall and strong foxgloves and delphiniums … they were absolutely stunning …

We could see that the next big showing was going to be hollyhocks which were not yet in flower but were also going to be huge.

We were now definitely ready for a breather so we made our way along the bottom of the garden … via the fountain garden … and the yew walk …

… to the cafe, where we had a bit of a breather before making our way back up to the top of the garden.

We opted for the step free way back which took us alongside the great lawn in the front of the castle …

… and then up through the daffodil paddock. There was no sign of daffodils today but there were plenty of these orchids …

It was a bit of a slog back up to the entrance of the garden and we were definitely ready for a sit down by the time we made it to the courtyard of the castle …

We took a while to take in the views across the garden and the countryside …

… before heading inside.

We couldn’t take any photos inside the castle and, after being outside in the gardens in the sunshine, it all felt a bit dark and gloomy.

We basically just had a quick wander round before getting back outside into the sunshine and heading on our way.

We’d had a lovely visit. For us the gardens were definitely the star of the show … which we often find is the case.

I’m sure we will be back … it’s a great stop off point and I definitely want to see those hollyhocks 😀

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