Five years ago, we bought Plas Dolfriog, a 200-year-old Welsh country manor nestled in one of Eryri National Park's ancient Celtic rainforests. For decades, it was a busy outdoor adventure centre for kids. Even a young John Lennon stayed here. Our goal was simple: slowly fix it up, protect this piece of Cymru’s heritage, and eventually open an off-grid retreat.

Then a single pipe sent our plans off course. Three years ago, while we were away for Christmas, an upstairs pipe burst in the freezing cold. Water ran undetected for two weeks. It fried the electrics and killed the heating. In a damp rainforest environment, that was a death sentence. Dormant fungi woke up instantly. Within weeks, dry rot and mould exploded through the house. Beams started crumbling, and plaster literally fell off the walls.

Our insurance company paid out only a fraction of the repair cost, claiming the pre-existing roof issues made the water damage worse. To wrap the building in temporary scaffolding just to stop the weather would cost £216k. The full restoration estimate is a brutal £1.3 million!

For the last three years, I’ve been going broke trying to rescue the building quietly on my own, while navigating the massive red tape that comes with owning a Grade II listed property in a highly protected conservation area.

Why I’m Asking for Help

I started documenting the issues I'm facing on social media, mostly to show the reality of going from a lovely home to an absolute wreck.

To be honest, I didn't want to start a GoFundMe. I felt embarrassed, and I didn't want to ask for charity for a difficult project I freely chose to take on. I set up a voucher scheme on our website so people could pre-pay for future stays because I wanted a fair exchange. But a large number of you told me to stop being stubborn and just open a GoFundMe so people could chip in a few quid to help fix the roof.

So, I’m swallowing my pride. I am just the current custodian of this building, which will still stand long after I'm gone, and I refuse to let it deteriorate on my watch.

How This Works

Because of GoFundMe’s rules, there are no rewards, perks, or stays tied to the donations made on this page. Every penny given here is a direct, no-strings contribution to help us tackle immediate hurdles like site testing, structural stabilization, and weatherproofing before winter.

If you want to support us, there are two ways to do it:

The Tip Jar (Donate Here): If you just want to throw the price of a coffee at the roof to help us clear the next hurdle, please donate on this page. It helps us keep going and shows the banks that this project is viable.

The Future Stay (Go to Our Website): If you want an experience in return, do not donate here. Instead, head to our website www.plasdolfriog.co.uk/visit where you can buy a voucher as a deposit for a holiday once the main house is finished, or we have permission to open our off-grid Tiny Homes.

Whether you chip in, buy a voucher, or just watch things unfold on social media to see if we pull this off or go bankrupt- thank you. Your support means the world to us and it's genuinely the only reason we are turning the corner.