Alison and Andy's home at The Mill House in Dyserth has a neighbour that never sleeps: a 70-foot waterfall that thunders day and night and draws hundreds of visitors a month. Far from putting them off, it helped them fall in love with the house.
"We just haven't looked back. It was the uniqueness of the whole package that we loved," Alison says.
A stressful road to home
The couple's route to the property began badly. "We had sold our house but then the house we were buying fell through and we had been renting for seven months," says Alison. "It was, I think, one of the most stressful times of our life. It was during Covid and we were just endlessly driving round and round the area trying to find a home, it was horrendous."
Help came from an unexpected quarter: Mike Peters of the band The Alarm and his wife Jules. "We used to live a couple of doors away from them at the top of Dyserth village for 20 years, and they helped us out because Jules walked past this property that was being built and told Andy that the builder, Mike, might be selling it." Alison came, knocked on the door, spoke to Mike, and within three days they shook on the deal. Mike was selling because he had become seriously ill, so the sale was tinged with sadness.
A neighbour that never shuts up
The house, a new build on the remains of an old mill, was unfinished when they bought it. But the real talking point is the water. The falls are created by the River Ffyddion dropping down the landscape on its way to meet the River Clwyd. The main fall, next to Alison's home, is about 70 feet, or 21 metres, high.
"You can't see the really big waterfall from our house, but you can hear it, and we have a small one at the side," Alison says. "When it rains for days the waterfall is massive, it is biblical, although the noise then is scary. It is mesmerising in its power, but unbelievably the mill has never flooded."
The water is not to be treated lightly. "It's so strong, the water pressure is so strong, it's thundering down even when there isn't rain. It could push you right under," she adds. Alison says she believes someone lost a drone after flying it too near the waterfall following the TV broadcast.
A village steeped in history
Dyserth is ancient. It is mentioned in the Domesday Book and is thought to have once been called Dissard; according to Dyserth Council's website, some older residents used that name until the 1980s. People have lived there since stone age times, drawn by hunting, fishing and fresh-water springs. The Romans later built a hillfort on the Moel Hiraddug peak above the settlement.
The waterfall and its grounds are historically managed through a joint arrangement involving the Bodrhyddan Estate, Dyserth Community Council and local landowners. The area was designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1985 and has long drawn visitors to its waterfall, caves, nature reserve and walking trails. The village also has two pubs and a historic church that Alison says contains the graves of two ancient Welsh princes.
A magnet for visitors from around the world
The location pulls people in from far beyond Wales. "The waterfall attracts people not just from this country, but from all over the world. They come here and also because of the connection with the band The Alarm. And you can stay there the whole day, and people do, and they put the picnic blanket out and relax," Alison says.
She describes the waterfall garden trail: "The waterfall garden trail takes you round the back, and you go to the top of the river, and there's little caves there, and children play in the river there. It's beautiful. It's stunning." In the corner of the garden is a small memorial, deliberately kept small. Alison says it is her husband's favourite place - "a place of remembrance but a happy place".
Religious groups are drawn to the water pool too. "We get a huge amount of different faiths coming to the water pool. So at the moment, we see a lot of prayer mats on the grass, including the Muslim faith, they travel here for the day from Birmingham, they come in minibuses, there was a visit here just this morning."
The waterfall gardens charge just £1 for parking, and regular stalls and events raise thousands of pounds for local charities.
Making the mill their own
When the couple took it on, the inside of the house was a shell. "It was all rubble at the back and the inside of the house was just a shell. And the only room that was finished, basically, was the bedroom that Mike was staying in. When we came here, it was beautiful. I fell in love with it straight away," Alison, 60 and originally from Anglesey, explains. She says Mike's design helped it gain planning permission, avoiding anything too modern.
The couple, retired from public service jobs, run two furniture shops: Prestatyn Furniture and Coast Road Furniture in Connah's Quay. That helped them fill the house with personal pieces, including kitchen shelves made from reclaimed wood from Caernarfon Castle and Welsh artwork celebrating the landscape.
Garden triumphs and nightmares
The garden took four years and was not easy. "We were let down by designers for the garden and so I thought, 'I'm going to do it myself', and that's basically what we've done, and it's taken four years but now it's flowering it has been worth it," Alison says. The couple used rubble found on site to build walls, added a decked platform beside the cliff, a balcony, a gin bar called the fizz box, and completed the top of the garage.
The hardest part was the hot tub. "We had to get a crane in to lift it over because we couldn't get it into the garden. Then it wouldn't fit the space without breaking so we had to rip the area all up and start again, it's cost us thousands, a crazy amount of money. My husband loves sitting in it but I don't even like them!" she says.
During the work they discovered a cave in the cliff, which they believe stretches back and connects to the cave under the waterfall. For now it is blocked off because they do not want an inquisitive grandchild getting lost inside. Alison says they will one day use part of it as a naturally cool wine cellar. The couple have also retained a fireplace from one of two cottages that were part of the original mill buildings, and have planning permission to create a small room under the balcony - Andy's whiskey room.
"Everyone says, 'why do we need to go on holiday?' Because every time you come here, it's like being on holiday, especially sitting outside on the balcony and in the fizz box. We will never move, it's our home and we adore it."
The Mill House was featured on BBC Cymru Wales' property programme Wales' Home of the Year, where judges were mesmerised by its modern yet warm interior, the garden with its cliff-face and cave, and of course the waterfall. All episodes are available on BBC iPlayer.
