Egryn

Abstract

Egryn is a working farm on the west coast of Meirionnydd, Wales. Its cultural landscape represents a fascinating slice of history, and includes a collection of buildings and monuments ranging from Neolithic long cairns to twentieth-century manganese workings, encompassing a Bronze Age stone circle, an Iron Age round house, early medieval platform sites, a sixteenth-century hall house, a seventeenth-century house, and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century agricultural buildings. The medieval house is Grade II*-listed, while all the other buildings are Grade II-listed and the majority of the archaeological sites are Scheduled Ancient Monuments.The farm was given to the National Trust in 2000, and provided an exciting challenge; how should the property be cared for using the highest building conservation standards, whilst giving public access to both the buildings and the landscape, and supporting the continuation of farming on the site?The following paper is a case study of the project; it discusses the approaches taken to the conservation and details some of the specific issues which have arisen during the work so far.