Ty Du, a roofless cottage near Llanberis, is being sold at auction with a guide price of just £17,000, yet its history makes it one of the most important small domestic buildings in Wales, according to the auction house handling the sale.
The derelict stone buildings, once a hamlet with cottages, a blacksmith's, and a shop, now lie silent and overgrown, but they hold stories of a banished bishop, a spooky death, and a man said to be north Wales' strongest.
Bishop's refuge and a poet's death
The property is thought to have begun as a medieval platform house in the 13th century. Its most notable owners included the Goodman family of Ruthin. Geoffrey Goodman became Bishop of Gloucester in 1625 and was chaplain to Queen Anne, wife of King James I, but his Catholic ideals led to imprisonment in the Tower of London for four months.
According to the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, Goodman endured two more periods of imprisonment before 1643, then retreated to Ty Du between 1643 and 1647. He later moved to London and died at Westminster in 1656.
In the 18th century, a man named Yates, locally known as north Wales' strongest man, lived in the cottage. During the 19th century, David Hugh Jones, a minister and self-taught poet known as Dewi Arfon, was born there. He returned to Ty Du when ill and died on Christmas Day morning in 1869.
Legend of the alarm clock
Author Derwyn Jones, writing on the Dictionary of Welsh Biography website, recounts a legend that between five and six o'clock in the morning, Jones called to his sister to set the alarm clock to strike at 9 o'clock. He died exactly at 9am.
The ruin retains original window and door openings, a double fireplace with an integrated oven, and a spiral stair. The current owner has stored the historic roof beams and A-frame at his home for future restoration.
Walking to Snowdon without crossing a road
The half-acre site includes the remains of two attached cottages, another cottage ruin about 35 metres away, the derelict smithy, and the remains of a small shop. The rear of the site sits in the foothills of Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), and the auction house says you can walk to the summit without crossing a public road.
The property is listed in the Inventory of the Royal Commission because of its history. It goes to online auction with Auction House, North Wales, in collaboration with Dafydd Hardy, Caernarfon, from Monday, September 28 to Tuesday, September 29.
