Recent Finds
I’ll use this page to drop in basic photo’s of any newly found locations, along with a brief explanation of what appears to be there, or why I’ve even flagged it up as being of interest.
I’ll update this page regularly as I do still spend a few hours a week just sitting on a computer, exploring. As I described elsewhere, I now tend to just pick a spot where I can see I have gaps, and start there. I pretty much always find something, and often around 10 – 15 properties, amazingly, sometimes in a matter of minutes. They really are out there.
Bear in mind, these finds are always a starting point for further exploration, whether online, getting as much information as I can, or sometimes, if I’m in a particular area, an actual on the ground visit.
These are what I found about a week ago. Interestingly, they’re all in North Wales, close to the coast, and in an area known for having huge numbers of holiday cottages, mostly owned by English people. This was interesting because, as I searched, I realised that I was finding very few actual ruins. It seems that the majority of abandoned or derelict properties in the area appear to have been found, or what is more likely, it’s well known that you can pretty much sell and develop anything in this area, from a pile of stones, to a remote barn and people will buy it and spend a fortune doing it up. In other words, the normal owners of these properties have got wise and effectively cashed in.
However….and this did come as a surprise, there are still a few gems out there, hidden away for whatever reason, waiting to be found
Search Date 03/03/2025
This one has to be pretty obvious. A longhouse, house and barn, and part of this still has what’s left of a roof on it. Very close to a road. Clearly now in the middle of a field with nothing else around it.
Another ruin, larger this time, surrounded by and almost completely obscured by woodland. You can see a modern farmyard in the bottom corner, this is likely to be the original farmhouse and will almost certainly show up on the 1905 OS map.
Quite a large ruin which looks like it had it’s own walled garden. A lot of shadow here so walls that are still largely intact. Another ruin in the middle of a field which means ownership and neglect courtesy of a local farmer. Note the interesting detail of the walls, these seem thicker than usual with what appear to be large fireplaces and openings. This has clearly been in interesting property at one point….
This is a potential gem. A large farmhouse with an adjacent barn, again, now in the middle of the farmland it would once have been at the heart of. You can see the walls are largely intact and that there is a small gable on the building on the left again making it an interesting characterful building..
What a place, a buy one, get one free. I would be very surprised if this hasn’t been done up as a cottage sometime in the last few decades, there is clearly evidence of maintenance and possibly even full restoration at some point. You simply can’t tell from an aerial photo.
I’m including a second photo here to give a sense of context and show what kind of environment you’re looking at here. These properties really are sometimes in the middle of nowhere, although in the case of this one, this is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Wales with access to coast, mountains, walking and pretty much anything you want. Perfect holiday cottage area, or to seriously get away from the rat race.
But yet again, surrounded by acres and acres of low value farmland.
A word of warning here though. These are the kind of properties that can look completely abandoned. Notice here the lack of any kind of vehicle tracks going towards the property, of of wear and tear that would show up if there is a regularly used path. HOWEVER there is the possibility that this is still someone’s holiday home…they just don’t get there too often. There is of course an alternative possibility that it was fully used for decades, and the family are still fighting to work out what to do with it after granny died. I see properties as having huge potential and well worth the effort to find out what is the situation here..
Oh, and there are footpaths that go past from a few different directions…so you can legitimately walk past the front door of this place….
The first thing you notice here is how perfect the roof is. Fairly recent I would say. You don’t get lines like that after years of neglect….BUT….can you see the tyre tracks?? There appear to be some, just visible heading off to the top right, but consider that, even having a roof rebuilt would require dozens of journeys with vehicles, materials etc, and the evidence would leave it’s mark on the landscape for years afterwards.
There is the second feature of this property…you can clearly see that the land above and to the left is very different to everything else. The rest is normal, well used farmland, that clearly isn’t. I would imagine that block of land goes with the cottage. This looks like an owner who has made some investment to keep the place intact, or even a partially completed restoration, but for whatever reason, activity here appears to have stopped. Only a visit and further research would tell you what…
This is a very mixed picture, but one worth looking into nonetheless. The buildings are extensive and clearly in very good condition and if you look at the track to the right, you can see evidence of it being used. However, you can also see that the woods are encroaching all around pretty much all of the buildings. This is very unusual…most people start to clear some of the ground around them, if only to let more light in. The land around also looks neglected and out of use.
To show contrast though, I’ve included the same property shown on Google Maps. Here there appears to be activity and you can see a clear area in front of the buildings. They are still overgrown though, and although the apparent date of the photo is 2025 and therefore very current, I’ve learnt to be a little mistrustful of these. And you would be amazed…I have found properties, fully restored, in perfect condition, wellies in the hallway, coats on the rack….and you have to go through a 6ft wall of brambles to get near them. There is only one way to check this out, and this is often to do just that….check it out..
Another ruin, clearly 2 stories so a house or large barn. Given the amount of surrounding walls I would say almost certainly a decent sized house. And what looks to be an almost perfect shell. No evidence of debris sitting inside those walls where they are collapsing inwards as they usually do (houses in these areas often have stone arches on the outer portion of the wall, and wooden lintels in the inner. As the wood rots first, the wall leans in and drops into the building, not outside)
Another ruined farm or smallholding with another building just above to the left which would have been the barn. These are only now considered smallholdings as they get left with a few acres, if any land at all. In the past, they would have had 20-30 acres and would have supported a family for generations. The common history is that they get swallowed up by a neighbouring farm who keep the land and either abandon, or sell off the unwanted buildings.
The fact that this one appears to have a block of land to the left which is clearly overgrown and abandoned suggests this property has been sold off at some point…WHY…simply because a farmer would have allowed his animals to roam around the whole site and this would keep the overgrowth back, and prevent any new tree growth. That is something I’ve seen hundreds of times. You don’t waste time and money with fences if they achieve nothing. This is often why you see these buildings with virtually now surrounding trees or overgrowth…the animals simply destroy it all.
Yes, this is a church. It’s not hard to work that out. The building is fully intact, and you can see the regular gravestones in the upper right of the chuchyard. Why include this…well just because it’s intact doesn’t mean it’s used. It’s isolated and there is little evidence if activity which there would be with regular use. There have also been a huge number of these churches being sold off in the last decade and believe it or not, they usually go without the churchyard itself…and then have covenants attached about future use. Oh and in case you wonder, they usually get sold with just the actual path leading up to them….so there is some access…and a metre around the building itself so you can maintain and repair it…..
But people do buy them…and manage to do things with them….
House, and barn. Good condition, but doesn’t look to be in regular use. I suspect this is probably owned with the local farm, who drive through occasionally. Worth checking out..