Overview
About Yr Ysgwrn
Why stop
- A preserved home and the Black Chair make Hedd Wyn's story tangible
- Quiet farm setting with a short walk and mountain views
Heads up
- The main farmhouse experience depends on a guided tour
- Dogs are not allowed on the working-farm site except guide dogs
Yr Ysgwrn is a preserved 19th-century Welsh stone farmhouse in the hills above Trawsfynydd, best known as the home of poet and shepherd Hedd Wyn. The house was built in 1830, and its thick walls still hold the domestic and working spaces of a hill farm: kitchen, parlour, bedrooms, buttery, stable, coach house and hay loft. Furniture and decoration have remained remarkably close to the period when Hedd Wyn lived here.
Parkwolf’s verdictWhy stopMap
Where it is
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Eryri Tour Guide
Your drive to Yr Ysgwrn, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Eryri National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this place
Yr Ysgwrn and Hedd Wyn“You're approaching Yr Ysgwrn, the hillside farmhouse where poet and shepherd Hedd Wyn lived. His poem won the National Eisteddfod's chair in 1917, but he had been killed at Passchendaele before the ceremony.”
Plays as you drive up to Yr Ysgwrn in the Parkwolf Eryri Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Two Stones in the Gorse
- The Lines Across the Fields
- The Door Gerald Kept Open
- Llyn Trawsfynydd
- 298 audio storiesacross Eryri’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Grey Heron, Tawny Owl, Common Raven, and 9 more
- Works offlinemaps, 120 trails, 82 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
More about Yr Ysgwrn
What to doThe farmhouse is visited on a guided tour, which brings together rural Welsh life, Hedd Wyn's…
The farmhouse is visited on a guided tour, which brings together rural Welsh life, Hedd Wyn's poetry and the story of the First World War. Booking ahead is sensible on popular days. Allow time around the tour for the exhibition about Hedd Wyn, the Ysgwrn family and the Trawsfynydd community, plus the short film in Beudy House about the war's impact.
The wider site is worth seeing even when you are not inside the farmhouse. There are walking paths and picnic areas across the farm, an on-site café for tea, coffee, drinks and cakes, and a small shop selling souvenirs, books and homewares. The short Rhos Grwm circular walk starts at the car park, crosses the farm fields and gives the setting room to breathe.
Access and practicalitiesYr Ysgwrn is still a working farm.
Yr Ysgwrn is still a working farm. Public buildings are accessible to wheelchairs and pushchairs, with an accessible path or lift where steps would otherwise be required. The site has two accessible toilets, three accessible parking spaces and one accessible footpath. Ask the team ahead of time about particular needs because the farm setting and the paths beyond the buildings are not all the same.
Dogs are not allowed on the site; guide dogs are welcome. Wear comfortable shoes for the farm paths, keep to signed routes and give yourself enough time for the guided tour rather than treating Yr Ysgwrn as a quick roadside photograph. The farmhouse and exhibition provide a rewarding indoor visit, while the surrounding fields are best enjoyed in weather that makes the hills visible.
The honest takeYr Ysgwrn earns its place through atmosphere, authenticity and the quality of its story, not…
Yr Ysgwrn earns its place through atmosphere, authenticity and the quality of its story, not through a large collection or a dramatic viewpoint. If you are interested in Welsh culture, poetry, social history or the personal cost of war, it is one of Eryri's most affecting stops. If you only want a fast landscape photo, the small site may feel like more commitment than the view alone warrants.
Why stopThe emotional centre is Y Gadair Ddu, the Black Chair.
The emotional centre is Y Gadair Ddu, the Black Chair. Hedd Wyn's winning chair from the 1917 National Eisteddfod was draped in black after news of his death at Passchendaele, then brought back to Yr Ysgwrn. It gives the visit a human scale: this is a quiet home and working farm, not an abstract war memorial or a grand country house.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Eryri
77 sightingsGrey HeronMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
17 sightingsTawny OwlMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
32 sightingsCommon RavenMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
21 sightingsGreat Spotted WoodpeckerMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
18 sightingsEuropean RabbitMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
161 sightingsViviparous LizardMost seen around 10 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Eryri. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
