A haunted house, an extraordinary birth and a deadly disease. Have you heard the tragic tale of Wales’ first recorded quadruplets?

Hiker Aled Morgan-Hughes in a string of Tweets shared the story of the short lives of Margaret, Elizabeth, Catherine and Isaac Hughes after his trip to Nant Syddion near the tiny Ceredigion hamlet of Ysbyty Cynfyn.

The quadruplets were born in 1856 to parents Isaac and Margaret Hughes who already had two children, Hugh and Hannah.

The historically-contested tale is well-known in the region and has become the product of folklore especially as hikers have, in the past, raised suspicions that the family’s former home – now a bothy still left unlocked for people to stay in – is haunted.

Mr Morgan-Hughes, who is communications officer for MS Cefin Campbell, stopped at the ‘lonely bothy’ in the Cambrian Mountains, 15 miles from Aberystwyth. He wanted to see the site for himself after reading Peter Stephenson’s book Ceredigion Folk Tales.

He wrote: “Here in February 1856, Mr and Mrs Hughes gave birth to the first recorded quadruplets in Wales. Within a month, all four – their brother, sister, and father – were dead.

“After their ‘extraordinary’ birth on 17 February 1856 an illness – likely typhoid or influenza – soon broke out in the cottage.

“Margaret and Catherine - merely four days old - would die first, followed a week later by their siblings Elizabeth and Isaac.

“News of the outbreak soon spread within the community, which sought to help the family - leaving food and money nearby.

“They’d dip the offerings in vinegar to stop the spread of the illness. But, by early March, things had gone from bad to worse.

“On 1 March, older son Hugh, aged five, died. His father, Isaac, aged 32, passed a week later on 6 March, and finally, Hannah, aged five, died on 10 March. The family were buried in a grave at St John’s Church in the nearby hamlet of Ysbyty Cynfyn.”

On their graves is an inscription in Welsh which reads: ‘From the same womb on the same day we came; From the same bosom we sucked; In the same grave we lie; On the same day we rise.’”

He continued: “Stories of the fate of Margaret (the mother) vary. Some say she moved away, whilst others suggest that, grief-stricken, she was sent to the asylum in Carmarthen – where she killed herself.

“Due to the stigma around suicide, she was refused burial alongside her family at St John’s. Nant Syddion is now a lonely bothy, popular with weary walkers.

“The tragic story is not totally forgotten – with some hikers citing a ‘motherly fussing’ feeling whilst staying over in the cottage. As a sceptic myself, it certainly was an eerie visit.”

Ceredigion is famed for its myths and legends. But the harrowing tale of the quintuplets is grounded in historical facts – though many are contested.

Mr Stephenson writes that the visitor book in the bothy ‘contains descriptions of an apparition or presence’, as suggested.

And it says written in candlewax on the wall is the name ‘Margaret.’