Content can be downloaded for non-commercial purposes, such as for personal use or in educational resources.
For commercial purposes please contact the copyright holder directly.
Read more about the The Creative Archive Licence.
Description
Notes on BLAEN MYHERIN, Devil’s Bridge, Ceredigion 2011
My first visit here was in 1991 – back then I had only just taken up photography and every weekend I would load myself up with camera and equipment and go exploring. Often, not always, I simply wandered around with no specific destination, merely walked from the road into the Cambrian Mountains and just followed my nose to wherever looked interesting. I followed streams and naturally gravitated towards ruins or sheepfolds.
Exploring the Myherin forest back then was a frustrating and confusing experience. I did not know my way around the many miles of forestry track – it could be slow going, sometimes going in circles and with only snatches of views gained from gaps in the trees. Blaen Myherin was a welcome view – it stands 5 miles from the main road and stands at the head of the valley. It seemed very secluded during my first visit and in many ways it is yet, also, it is surrounded by wind farm turbines and in the middle of a working forest whose tracks are sometimes used for motor sport rally.
The house spends most of its time in a solitary isolation but every now and again it is in the midst of a roar of noise and always accompanied with that thin and wavering un-melodic hum from the wind turbine blades continuously filling this sometime peaceful valley.
The house, as one can see in the photographs, is in a very poor state with the roof and one gable end collapsed. The long, 100 foot barn beside the house is also looking structurally poor and is no longer in use. Inside is littered with debris and many names have been carved into the wooden stable walls. The house was last lived in the late 1960’s. What would the owners think of the house now?
My trip was a pleasant one nonetheless. I had cycled to the house and made a number of exposures – simple, uncomplicated and rewarding. The ground around the house is very damp, I followed the sheep tracks through the hidden deep troughs of muddy waters and set up the camera.
Blaen Myherin will shortly be nothing more than a pile of stone. How sad to think the wind turbines will out-survive this once much loved farmhouse.
Do you have information to add to this item? Please leave a comment
Comments (0)
You must be logged in to leave a comment