In Search of Penlan

 

In Search of Penlan

There are many places amongst the hills that are evocative.  Some are based on personal memories, others can be found through such things as music, the written word or photographs.  All can leave mindscapes full of intimate images. 

Some of the most evocative places amongst the Welsh hills are the old houses that inhabit the landscape, now derelict and all with a story to tell.  Many of these are old farm houses now left to wither in increment weather, while some will be old dwellings inhabited during summer months by shepherds.  There are many such places in Wales, some no more than piles of rocks where exterior walls once lay, while others are still robust and relatively intact.  However, there are few that are written about and still even fewer that have recently been lived in.

It was one such place that I set out, with friends in tow, to find.  The house is named Penlan and since reading about it, I had wanted to visit.  However, it took a while to find where this old house is situated.

Penlan was where Neil Ansell spent five years living off grid, without running water or electricity.  His account of living at Penlan appears in his book; Deep Country – Five Years in the Welsh Hills. 

Deep Country by Neil Ansell

When I read this book I imagined the house was situated somewhere close to the country of the Brecon Beacons.  It was the imagery of the place brought on by Neil’s writing that had me scanning my mind’s eye trying to place Penlan in a landscape that I knew.  Another friend told me that when she read the book she imagined Penlan to be placed somewhere near Machynlleth.

It is not my intention to give the place where this house is situated, as part of the fun of such things is delving in to clues and finding out for oneself.  For me, it was the beautiful pen and ink drawing of the map placing Penlan in its landscape that appears on the inside front and rear cover of the book and its endpapers, coupled with one or two clues interspersed in the text that had me examining maps and finding where this old house is placed.

We set out to Penlan on a leaden grey skied day with adjoining hill tops still enveloped in November murk.  It was an ideal day to visit as the weather was still, with hardly a breath of breeze; with the grey nature seemingly matching that of a house such as Penlan.  One that is no longer lived in, now showing signs of weathering with flecks of paint cracked and crumbling, rusted iron gates leading up forgotten stone steps and a tranquillity matching the still November day where Red Kites meandered across the skies and except for white flecks of grazing sheep, little stirred.

From the start of our walk it was only a short distance to the house, contouring around and then down a steep field on to a green track, from which we had our first view of Penlan.  The western side of the house showing off a robust Victorian exterior, the front garden had recently been tendered with a number of green sacks laid out full of foliage.  Old trees, wind-blown and weathered looked out from adjacent fields toward the valley below, with light grey silhouetted shapes of hills indicating the landscape that Penlan inhabits. 

On our visit the house was locked, although the rear outhouse only had the rusted remains of a green flecked hook keeping its door partly closed to the elements.  Large plastic barrels collected water from the truffins.  While inside the ground floor looked similar to a number of bothies I had visited, although these are usually kept neat awaiting their next visitor.  In contrast Penlan looked used but now forgotten, with a number of things discarded, with the feeling of the slow ebb of autumnal damp creeping around the inner house.  Internally it did not look welcoming, but the house is still intact and is placed in a wonderful position amongst an ancient landscape of nature.  It was the latter that Neil Ansell discovered when living here and it must have been a wonderful experience, although one not suited for many.

We left the same way we had come, on the green track, but we soon left this to climb the field behind Penlan.  Now behind us the house disappeared except for its tiled roof, it still looked out on the land below, standing forlornly in the place it had occupied for a hundred years and more. 

I was glad I had visited.  For me part of the joy of doing such things is to investigate new places, those proverbial blanks on the map are getting fewer, but thankfully will never be fully filled in.  Some will always remain and that is the joy, seek and find but leave others undisturbed. 

Myrddyn Phillips (January 2023)