What: Motel and services
Where: Llywel, Brecknockshire
Built: c. 1975
Architect: Unknown
Abandoned: 2001
Listed: No
Visited: 2006-2010
Last Known Condition: Derelict
Page Updated: February 2014
Standing by the side of the A40 (T) between Trecastle and Llandovery is a sad, decaying eyesore. No-one I spoke to seemed to know much about Greystones, but it seems likely that it opened around 1975 at the same time as the new Llywel Trunk Road. The motel's location and design reflect an optimistic 'golden age' of the car, when thousands of miles of motorways and A-roads were being laid out and touring was a popular and affordable hobby.
By the 1990s it seems that the isolation which once made the motel such an attractive stopping point in the Brecon Beacons was beginning to work against it as car fuel economy improved, foreign holidays became more affordable, visitor numbers fell and petrol prices rose, leading to permanent closure by 2000.
During the Foot and Mouth Disease Crisis of 2001, more than 40,000 infected animal carcasses were taken to the nearby Epynt army ranges to be buried or burned. Being opposite the turning to the burial site, Greystones was soon taken over by protesters who feared large scale contamination of local water supplies and attempted to blockade the carcass lorries. At the height of the operation 35,000 litres of accelerant and 2,000 tons of coal were brought onto site each day: for months on end, plumes of acrid black smoke could be seen rising above the Epynt, a deeply unpleasant business for everyone concerned.
More than a decade later, the motel is draughty, damp and unpleasant. The spacious restaurant is falling down, the petrol pumps have been stripped for valuable scrap and the two blocks of en-suite rooms have been smashed by vandals.
At the time of writing in 2014, the site was soon to be auctioned with a guide price of £100,000.
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