About
Yr Ysgwrn is one of the most poignant heritage sites in Wales — the farmhouse home of Hedd Wyn, the Welsh-language poet whose life and death in the First World War gave rise to one of the most moving and enduring stories in Welsh cultural history. Set in the upland village of Trawsfynydd in the mountains of Snowdonia, the farmhouse has been preserved largely as it was in Hedd Wyn's time, and at its heart sits the Black Chair — the bardic Chair that was awarded to the dead poet at the 1917 National Eisteddfod, a ceremony that has become one of the most powerful symbols of Wales's sacrifice and grief in the Great War.
Hedd Wyn was the bardic name of Ellis Humphrey Evans, born in 1887, who grew up at Yr Ysgwrn and spent his life on the farm and in the surrounding mountains that he loved and that flow through his poetry with a physical and emotional intensity. Despite limited formal education, he developed into one of the most gifted Welsh-language poets of his generation, winning the bardic Chair — the highest honour at the National Eisteddfod — at a young age and establishing himself as a poet of genuine promise and power.
In 1917, Evans was conscripted into the Royal Welch Fusiliers and sent to the Western Front. He submitted his awdl (a long poem in strict metre) — titled Yr Arwr, The Hero — to the National Eisteddfod competition before leaving for France. On 31 July 1917, the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele (Third Ypres), Ellis Evans was mortally wounded near Pilckem Ridge in Belgium. He died on 9 August 1917, six weeks before the Eisteddfod was held in Birkenhead.
At the Eisteddfod on 6 September 1917, the archdruid called three times for the winning poet — Fleur de Lis, his bardic pseudonym — and received no answer. Word had reached the ceremony that the winner had been killed in France. The bardic Chair was draped in black, and the ceremony that should have been a celebration became an act of public mourning that is still remembered as the ceremony of the Black Chair. The chair was brought back to Yr Ysgwrn and has remained in the farmhouse ever since.
Managed by Snowdonia National Park Authority since the family sold it in the 1970s, Yr Ysgwrn opened to the public in 2017 after sensitive restoration work. The farmhouse is preserved with extraordinary care — the slate floors, stone walls, and simple furnishings of a Welsh hill farm of the early twentieth century — and the Black Chair sits in the kitchen as it always has, a tangible presence and a focus of profound emotion for every visitor who comes to pay their respects to Hedd Wyn and to the Wales he represented.
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Highlights
The Black Chair
The Black Chair — Y Gadair Ddu — is one of the most emotionally charged objects in Welsh cultural life, and it sits in the kitchen of Yr Ysgwrn where it has remained since it was returned to the Evans family after the 1917 National Eisteddfod in Birkenhead. When the winning poet — who had competed under the pseudonym Fleur de Lis — was called three times by the archdruid and received no answer, word was delivered that the winner had been killed in France.
The chair was draped in black cloth in a ceremony that transformed an act of literary celebration into a public expression of grief and sacrifice.
It remains at Yr Ysgwrn, a simple wooden chair of extraordinary historical and emotional significance — a tangible memorial to Hedd Wyn and to the thousands of Welsh soldiers who did not return from the Great War.
Hedd Wyn — Poet of the Mountains
Ellis Humphrey Evans — Hedd Wyn, meaning 'blessed peace' — was born at Yr Ysgwrn in 1887 and grew up in the farmhouse and the surrounding mountains of Snowdonia. Despite limited formal schooling, he developed into one of the most gifted Welsh-language poets of his generation, steeped in the tradition of cynghanedd — the complex Welsh system of alliteration and internal rhyme that governs strict-metre poetry — and possessed of a lyrical imagination that transformed the landscape he knew into poetry of genuine beauty and feeling.
He won the bardic Chair at the Eisteddfod chair competition in Pwllheli in 1915, confirming his status as a major talent.
His poetry celebrates the mountains, the seasons, and the rural life of north Wales with a tenderness and precision that remains moving in translation.
The 1917 Eisteddfod — The Ceremony of the Black Chair
The ceremony of the Black Chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod in Birkenhead stands as one of the most poignant moments in the history of Welsh cultural life. The competition poem — Yr Arwr, The Hero — had been submitted before Hedd Wyn left for France, and it was judged the best awdl (long poem in strict metre) of the competition by the adjudicators.
But when the archdruid rose to call the winner to the stage by his pseudonym Fleur de Lis, there was silence.
Ellis Evans had died on 9 August 1917 from wounds received on the first day of Passchendaele. The Chair was draped in black silk and the ceremony was transformed into an act of national mourning that Wales has never forgotten.
The Farmhouse Preserved
Yr Ysgwrn has been preserved with extraordinary fidelity to its appearance during Hedd Wyn's lifetime — the slate-flagged floors, the stone walls, the low ceilings, and the simple furnishings of a Welsh hill farm of the early twentieth century create an atmosphere of austere authenticity that speaks more eloquently than any museum reconstruction could.
The kitchen, where the family gathered and where the Black Chair sits, retains the character of a working farm kitchen of the period. The surrounding farm buildings and the mountain landscape visible from every window provide the context in which Hedd Wyn grew up, worked, and found the subjects for his poetry.
To stand in these rooms is to understand, with unusual directness, the world from which he came and to which he never returned.
Collections
Hedd Wyn — Life, Poetry, and Legacy
The preserved farmhouse rooms of Yr Ysgwrn, presented through guided tours in Welsh and English, exploring the life and poetry of Ellis Humphrey Evans (Hedd Wyn), the story of the Black Chair, and the broader context of Welsh cultural life and the First World War.
Y Gadair Ddu — The Black Chair
The bardic chair awarded to Hedd Wyn at the 1917 National Eisteddfod, returned to Yr Ysgwrn after the ceremony of the Black Chair and remaining in the farmhouse kitchen — the physical and emotional heart of the site.
Current Exhibitions
Yr Ysgwrn presents occasional special events, talks, and seasonal activities. Check the Yr Ysgwrn website for current programming, particularly around the anniversary of Hedd Wyn's death in August and the National Eisteddfod period.