Farmhouse

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Downstairs

Kitchen  Well equipped with a Kenwood, 5 hob gas cooker with 2 ovens, a modern Belling 4 ceramic hob electric cooker with oven and grill, large fridge, 2 x dishwashers, microwave and capacious cupboards, working surface and drawers. Room too for recycling. (For freezer see Boot Room). There is a slow cooker, a Dualit 6 slice toaster. Great views of garden, and of woodpeckers and friends at the hanging feeder.

Cegin Fawr (aka Dining Room)  The old oak refectory table seats 12, or with extension, 16. If the side table is used as well, 25 can be seated (ask!). Charming Welsh dresser contains the cutlery and some crocks, while the white painted version next to it cunningly houses the hi-fi equipment. Bring your own iPod or browse our CDs. A log stove is on hand to provide extra atmosphere and should you wish for a cabaret or other dramatic production while you eat, the minstrel’s gallery above you offers the ideal stage.

Cruck Hall (aka Music Room)  Plenty of relaxing room to appreciate the Eavestaff piano and the hi-fi which controls from the dining room.
4 sets of speakers, for this area plus dining room, lounge and kitchen, and to contemplate the 1490 cruck wall, mentioned in Pevsner.

Parlwr (aka Lounge)  Five very comfortable armchairs and an Esse Dragon woodburning stove . In the drawers of the 17th century oak chest you’ll find Scrabble, packs of cards, chess, and dominoes, plus the dictionary and many other books of course. If you need the lounge extra snug, don’t forget you can create walls with the curtains.

Garden Room (aka Breakfast Room)  This has stunning views down the valley, and is good for relaxing over coffee, watching the buzzards as they quarter the valley, or for children to do drawing activities.

Buttri (aka Laundry)  This utility room where butter was made up to the 1950’s now houses the washing machine, tumble-drier, Barnes airer for line drying, 6ft long clothes rail for coats etc. iron and ironing board and Belfast sink (excellent for bathing babies). There is also a small extra fridge, 4-drawer freezer, tumble dryer and “sheila maid” (a pulley clothes airer / dryer that winches up to the ceiling).

Lavatories  (aka Loos, toilets) There are six of these littered around the house so even those of you operating on the shortest fuse should seldom be caught out.

Outside

There’s much to see when you step out of the Farmhouse. Firstly the stunning views all round – the twin Berwyn mountain peaks of Mynydd Mawr and Gyrn Moelfre framed between the rolling walls of the Nant y Brithyll valley, and behind you Foel Knoll from whose summit of hewn granite was sledged, some 500 years ago, the stone to build the farmhouse and its outbuildings.

A gentle walk beyond the Bunkhouse and up the farm track passing the new barn and yard brings you to a minor road perched on the side of the valley which you can follow down to the village, stopping frequently to admire the roadside profusion of wild flowers and the aerobatic grace of buzzards.

You may well meet a couple of neighbours on horseback and if it’s ‘rush hour’ maybe a car or even two. You’ll get a wave or an offer of a lift. Happily, city ways have not yet reached these parts. The same friendliness is to be found in The Railway Inn where, over a pint of local ale or a superb lamb shank you soon lose any sense of time,  urgency or stress.

High above the disused quarries there still remain traces of Craig Rhiwarth, the large Celtic Hill Fort from which, until his eventual defeat by Scapula, Caratacus (Caradoc) King of the Ordovices launched successful resistance to Roman occupation.

A few miles to the west of Llangynog, hidden away at the head of a valley stands the Shrine Church of St. Melangell, a tranquil, spiritual place to which anyone seeking peace of mind should pay a visit, as pilgrims have done for many hundreds of years.