Gwydir Castle

31/08/2026

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Phew, it's a bit nerve-wracking this...

Notes from an Old Welsh House. Restoration dramas, history, nature, life. Click to read Judy Corbett's Substack, a Substack publication. Launched 21 minutes ago.

30/08/2026

Like an embrace…

28/08/2026

Green (and grey) again.

25/08/2026

A visit to the very atmospheric Llyn y Morwynion today (the Lake of the Maidens) - the scene of so much folklore from the Mabinogion. This was where Blodeuwedd fled with her handmaidens (after conspiring to kill her husband).

Looking over their shoulders in panic, the three maidens stumbled and drowned in this lake. Blodeuwedd survived and was turned into an owl by the wizard Gwydion, thus forever doomed never to show her beautiful face in daylight again.

25/08/2026

Second brood of swallows just about to fledge. Pleased to see they’re using the webbing I strengthened the nest with, as a take-off and landing strip!

22/08/2026

Alone in the house today. Such a different atmosphere to when it’s bustling with visitors (which is lovely in a different way).

There’s a real depth to the stillness this evening - a completeness - like a mind in a state of deep meditation.

19/08/2026

In the hot summer of 1613, Sir John Wynn of Gwydir writes to the Privy Council to say that the greater part of the area’s ’corn and grass is burnt up by the unseasonable weather and that this has affected the sale of cattle.’ He continues that had they not received corn from other countries there would have been a famine.

17/08/2026

Four very late arrivals at the chickpea ball and believe me when I say they’ve already used up about twenty-six of their nine lives. They’re into their second week of precarious existence. They’ll be fine now. And I’m very pleased to be released from peachick watch.

14/08/2026

The space in between.

12/08/2026

Not easy to photograph an eclipse - but here's ours earlier - all cool shadow and eerie silence. The moon, a dilated pupil in the eye of the sun. A bit cloud shrouded for us, sadly.