Tŷn-y-Coed Inn, Capel Curig
This inn was built to provide accommodation for the growing numbers of visitors to the area in the 19th century, probably after the improvements made to what is now the A5 road by Thomas Telford and the creation of the Llanberis Pass road in 1828. The old postcard photo shows the building before the north wing was added.
The oldest part of the inn dates from before 1840. The 1841 the census recorded that Eleanor Williams was the publican.
The inn became known as the Tŷn-y-Coed Hotel. The name means “House in the Forest”. Tŷ is Welsh for house and Coed means woods or forest.
It’s likely that a building has stood on this site since the late 18th century, when the land was part of the holding of Cefn y Scubell (whose farm building is high above the present site in what is now forestry). The holding was part of the Gwydir estate, and from 1786 to 1806 or later the tenant farmer was Catherine Davies.
Early Noncomformists met at Tŷn-y-Coed before it became an inn. Preaching began in a small way in Capel Curig in c.1786, the first base being Ysgubor Wen (now a derelict cottage in the forestry south of the A5). Chapel meetings were held for about 20 years at Tŷn-y-Coed, where Owen and Mary Evans lived until their eviction c.1813.
According to the Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald in 1848, c.40 years earlier the tenant of Tŷn-y-Coed farm had allowed the “humble dwelling” to be used for children’s Bible classes on weeknights and Sundays. The Anglican clergy had tried various ways to halt the practice. Eventually the Rev Humphreys of Rhyd-Llanfair Hall (between Penmachno and Pentrefoelas) bought the farm and “effected his purpose by remorselessly unhousing the whole family”.
Since the 1950s a horse-drawn carriage has stood outside the hotel.
With thanks to Harvey Lloyd, of the Friends of St Julitta's
Postcode: LL24 0EE View Location Map