Y Dolydd is a Community Enterprise for Arts, Education, Environment and Heritage. It’s housed in the Llanfyllin Union Workhouse: the only one in Wales open to the public.
The Workhouse is owned by the Llanfyllin Dolydd Building Preservation Trust (Charity No. 1091097). The Trust is a community group with membership open to all. Its elected Trustees manage the project as volunteers.
The Trust bought Y Dolydd and six acres of land with the help of the Architectural Heritage Fund in 2004. It stood abandoned and derelict. The priority was to arrest the decay and get the building back into use. Restoration has been gradual: much has been achieved and more remains to be done.
Y Dolydd is a handsome stone building, listed Grade II*. It’s Britain’s finest example of a workhouse built under the New Poor Law of 1834. It stands in the glorious countryside of Mid-Wales, close to the market town of Llanfyllin on the road leading to Lake Vyrnwy.
Visitors can walk around the site and view the Workhouse History Centre, a small, self-guided museum telling the story of the people who lived and worked here for over a century. You can watch a 30-minute film, ‘Ghosts of the Workhouse’, aimed at adults and children, and follow a visitor trail with an activity leaflet for families. There’s a second-hand bookshop upstairs and picnic tables outdoors. The Centre is open daily free of charge: a donation is appreciated. Schools and other groups are welcome by appointment.
