Tŷ Hyll

Tŷ Hyll is a house full of history, legend and mystery; no one really knows who built the house, or when.

Legend says that the house was built in the 15th century overnight – a ‘tŷ unnos’ or ‘one night house’. According to tradition at that time, a house built during one night on common land, with a chimney smoking by dawn, could be claimed by the builders as their own property.
Other legends say it was built by robbers and thieves, taking advantage of travelers on the old main road as they journeyed through Snowdonia – ‘ugly’ people that gave the house a fearsome reputation.

The first person who we know lived here was local shepherd, John Roberts, in 1900. Within the thick dry stone walls his accommodation would have been basic: a single living room with the large fireplace for heat and cooking and a ladder up to a sleeping loft under the roof.

The people who lived here longest were the Rileys, from 1928 to 1961. Edward Riley gradually ‘improved’ The Ugly House – installing an upstairs with bedrooms and a bathroom and a separate parlour and scullery downstairs.
Edward and his wife Lilian welcomed visitors into the house over the years, entertaining them with tales and their pet cockatoo.

After the Rileys died, Tŷ Hyll passed through a number of different owners who ran it as a tea room, antiques shop and tourist attraction. It was near dereliction when bought by the Snowdonia Society in 1988, and the listed building was sensitively renovated by a band of dedicated volunteers to provide a small visitor centre and headquarters for the Society.
In 2010 the Snowdonia Society moved its offices to Caban in Brynrefail, near Llanberis. This allowed Tŷ Hyll to be refurbished by the Society, opening as a tearoom and honeybee exhibition in 2012. The garden and woodland are used as an educational resource, for the benefit of pollinators and other wildlife and providing pleasure to over 35,000 passing and local visitors each year.