A £400,000 appeal to restore a remote historic cottage in Snowdonia has been launched by the Landmark Trust.

The Landmark Trust, a charity that rescues historic buildings and makes them available for holidays, has already carried out emergency roof works at Coed y Bleiddiau in the Snowdonia National Park to halt the rain damage on the Grade II listed building, but it now needs to raise £400,000 for the building’s restoration.

Coed y Bleiddiau, ‘the wood of wolves’, takes its name from the legend that the last wolf in Wales was slain nearby, and was built in 1863-1864 for the Superintendent of the Ffestiniog Railway which took slate from the quarries down to the harbour at Porthmadog 13 miles away.

Anna Keay, director of the Landmark Trust said: “Coed y Bleiddiau has much in common with some of Landmark’s earlier projects, it is modest in scale but deeply special for its place in our history and landscape.

“This wonderful steam railway has been revived thanks to the heroic work of the Ffestiniog Railway.

“Trains once again puff daily up the hillside, but Coed y Bleiddiau, stands abandoned and forlorn.

“We are determined to save this tiny fragment of the slate industry that transformed this region in the 19th century, but need financial support.”

Since the death of Bob and Babs Johnson, the last tenants who lived at Coed y Bleiddiau from the 1950s, the building has fallen into dereliction; the interiors saturated by driving rain which has caused plaster ceilings to collapse from water penetration. The floors and joinery are also rotten.

Landmark hopes to start the project in summer 2016 and needs to raise £400,000 to breathe life once again into the neglected building. It would open for bookings of up to four guests some time in 2017, who will be able to flag down an approaching steam train from its own tiny private platform.

The building still remains the property of the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway Trust, with whom the Landmark Trust is partnering. The materials and manpower needed for the project will all be carried to and from the site by train as there is no road access to the isolated cottage.

Paul Lewin, general manager of the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway, added: “We are delighted to be working with the Landmark Trust, whose admirable track record in the restoration of historic buildings such as this made them the obvious choice to bring Coed y Bleiddiau back to life for the enjoyment of future generations.”