Should we stay or should we go?
The question was up for debate. 'Bontddu Hall' was far away, farther away than we had ever travelled. From what we could see, it looked impressive inside, half-burnt and half-saved.
If only we could get inside the ‘saved’ part, then it might be worthwhile.
'Bontddu Hall' suffered from a major fire in 2020, in which one person died. It has remained closed since then.
It has been stated that many famous celebrities have stayed at 'Bontddu Hall' including Winston Churchill, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, and Neville Chamberlain.
This leg of our Wales trip would take us deep into the mid-section of this mostly rural country and would touch on the west coast.
It was a little out of the way, but quite close to a time capsule that @grindle had provided to me. I figured it was worth a punt.
“There it is”.
I had spotted what looked like a burnt wreck from the roadside. It was on the edge of a town and there was some parking available for once.
After doing some investigation of various GoonTuber videos, I figured there was a route from the roadside via a likely overgrown path.
…and there it was, the way up avoiding the front access entrance-way…
Trying not to laugh at the ridiculously ineffective green wiring, we simply walked around it and followed an overgrown pathway that ascended to the old hall.
It was like walking through some Alice-in-Wonderland type garden and meandered upward like a snake before levelling off and showing a glimpse of the property.
“What’s that fucking noise?”
We could both hear a tinny whirring sound and cautiously snuck forward anxious to pin down the source of this unwanted noise.
“Why is there a bloody Gardner mowing the lawn”, I whispered to @anidiotexplores in exasperation.
We had travelled all this way only to meet some bumpkin weed-smoking twat likely getting stoned on the job who would obstruct our visit.
Could we bribe him with extra weed to fuck off for a bit while we look around? He looked serious, not-so-young, and professional; maybe not.
Backtracking past the lover’s seat we came upon an outdoor spiral staircase and had to climb it.
I could see Winston Churchill parked in one of those metal chairs and admiring the view.
Tea and toast, or more likely crumpets. The scene was so.. English, except this is Wales.
Better still, we could simply walk through the huge holes in what were once enormous windows.
It looked like another burnt-out derp, the fire must have hit this part of 'Bontddu Hall' with some severe wrath.
To the left was GardenerMan somewhere. We dared not get any closer and was sure he had not spotted us.
A little gaudy carpet, but little else in this area.
Walk through this passage and things change dramatically. The fire doors must have been top-notch.
Some rooms had suffered from extreme fire damage, but a few items had survived. I'm willing to wager that old Microwave still works. I should have plugged it in and spun it up.
It doesn’t help when your roof caves in. I do love the old pillar with its intricate markings. The rusty springs are what remains of the guest beds from the upper floor.
It was clear that the owners of 'Bontddu Hall' had been sealing doors, and windows only for them to be ripped off. The TourBus had already come, and gone and was continuing to stream new visitors.
To our dismay, many areas were boarded up and we could only drool through windows at the non-burnt out areas that were out of reach.
That’s some lovely wood-paneling. It was probably there during the war years when Mr. Bulldog himself stayed.
If you need to jump through hatchways to get farther in, then that’s what you do.
Could we have managed more if that fucking GardenerMan had not been here? That side of 'Bontddu Hall' was off-limits for now. Heading for the outside areas, we skirted around the edges of ‘Bontddu Hall’ looking for more ways in.
Fresh boards everywhere. It was not going to be our lucky day.
We poked our heads around a corner and noticed what we guessed to be GardenerMan’s car.
Was it occupied or empty? There was little to lose by marching past it, and as we guessed it was empty.
The fencing was new, but as usual, I found a breach and managed to get closer. Everything was sealed tight.
My efforts were proving fruitless and we had to concede defeat. The burnt-out areas had devastated 'Bontddu Hall' but much of it was salvageable.
The fact that GardenerMan existed and was doing his stuff tells me there are renovation plans.
We left sulking a little and thought about the next one which was another lengthy drive.
'Kartmans' it was was named. It sounded German and hopefully would be full of old wartime gasmasks, a few hopefully unused packs of ‘Blondex', rotting ration books and copious vintage porn.
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