Dwr Bach

There are many ruins in these hills - this is one of the most curious.  It lies at the boundary between the open mountainside and the small pasture fields below.

On the left is the remnant of a tiny  dwelling built maybe 200 years ago with stone taken directly from the ground hereabout.  One room with a simne fawr (big chimney)* over a wide hearth,  a crog loft (boarded upper floor reached via a ladder), another section tacked on perhaps for animals,  a small barn opposite.  The usual sort of thing. But directly beside it, on the right, is a mid-20th century house built of much shoddier materials - brick, plasterboard, and asbestos sheeting. It too is derelict and frequented only by sheep and swallows.

It was not that unusual for a farmer who prospered  to build afresh beside the original family property,  leaping from peasant simplicity to relative sophistication (plumbing, electricity etc.), but it puzzles me that the newer house should have been so poorly constructed and so soon abandoned. The site is a most attractive one and not especially remote. I have never discovered the explanation for its desertion:  some family tragedy perhaps or else overarching ambition for betterment.

The ivy's stranglehold on the ash tree in the foreground adds to the slightly uneasy air of mystery that surrounds this ghostly dwelling place.

*https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/315060