Some ancient woodland, the old, remote church of Llangelynnin and Maen Penddu standing stone, all connected by a rather old path. Parc Mawr An area of woods to the west of Henryd, at SH757737, Parc Mawr is owned and managed by the Woodland Trust who welcome considerate visitors. There's a small car park/layby near the entrance, which is handy as there are few places to park hereabouts unless you start from Henryd. This is a mixed deciduous woods, on a very steep east facing site above the Conwy valley. But the first thing we encountered was an adit... Into the woods! After having a nosey around the ungated trial adit, (more about this here) we set off up the main path which takes a route along the middle of the woods. The path climbs steeply for almost a mile, (a vertical climb of 110 metres in height), to a viewpoint with a handy bench. There are many fine trees to admire; beeches, sweet chestnuts, Douglas firs, and some fine old oaks. Conifers have been felled and left on the ground. We sat for a few minutes and gazed at the view across to Conwy, starting in on the snacks already, despite it being early in the day. Feeling slightly full, we walked on a little way until we encountered a trackway crossing from below. This is an old route which has been re-branded as the "Pilgrim's Path". We turned right and walked steeply up. It's surfaced with round stones and would probably be very slippery in the wet- even on the glorious day we had, it resembled a stream bed in places. It's interesting that on the way up the path, the walls vary in age and repair condition. Near the top, there is some ancient walling on display, parts of it originating from the middle ages. We went through another gate, with the Iron Age fort of Cerrig y Dinas looming on our right. The old church came into view now. Looking at the walls as they strode up the hill, I realised that they were enclosure walls- perticularly noticeable in the higher land above the Conwy valley. I don't like the thinking behind them, the idea that a few people could divvy up land that folk had been living and farming on for thousands of years. Share it out between themselves and chuck everybody else off. But I had to admire the craftsmanship that went into building the walls. I have tried to build dry stone walls a good few times and I know how much thought goes into it- and how much frustration! St Celynnin's church I shan't say much about the church, since churches and religion are not my thing. But if it's your thing, then it is well worth a look. The site was dedicated to St Celynnin in the sixth century, although this ultra-modern imposter dates from the twelfth century. You can pick up a very good, free informative leaflet inside the church. Petra went in and took some photos- I will put them on here when her workload allows her to process them. Once past the church, the moor opens out and horizons become wider. We walked past a very fine sheepfold. I'm glad to see there is renewed interest in these wonderful old structures that always fascinate me when I find them in the hills. Sadly, they don't photograph very well without a drone, or a tame pilot to do them justice! We headed upwards as the landscape became more remote, despite being only a few miles from Conwy. That is one of the attractive features of this area, as locals can come up and get some fresh air while it is relatively unknown to the majority of tourists, who tend to congregate on the Bwlch y Ddeufaen to the south. I don't think my readership is big enough to endanger the secret. The ruined medieval farm of Friddlys We were now on the lower slopes of Tal y Fan, and could see the eponymous slate quarry ahead. See post here. We were intrigued by some stands of trees below in the otherwise bare hillside. I wondered if the trees masked a ruined farm, so we went down to have a look. We found something rather magical in the shade of some old sycamore trees. According to Coflein, this was a medieval farmstead, which they call Ffriddlys, although it is marked on the 1st edition OS maps as Llwyn Penduu. Modern maps ignore it. The first thing that I saw was a pig sty, almost completely ruined, but still recogniseable. Then a cart shed. To the right, or south, there was a range of buildings- at the end was the dwelling house with a range still in position (just). I wished it wasn't so sunny (never satisfied) as the light was so harsh, but perhaps that added to the magic as well. A little bit further up the hill, there was another, smaller set of more ruinous structures- I think they were a part of Ffridllys farm. I failed to photograph anything here, sadly, the differences between the light and the shade defeated me. There was a mysterious metal wheel leaning in a gate opening, perhaps from a machine like a hay rake. Maen Penddu We made our way uphill to an area which contained a number of old beudy structures, and the peat hut shown in a previous blog post here. These were all close to a very impressive standing stone, Maen Penddu. I quote Coflein NPRN 303070 which says: "The stone stands 6ft high and measures 3ft 6 ins x 2ft 6 ins at base. It has been incorporated in the line of an old enclosure bank on the S of a well-used track." Maen Penddu means "black headed stone". The side that faces the track coming uphill has sadly been defaced with some deeply carved names. The south elevation has a cross carved into it. Honestly, I can't find the words. At this point, we headed off up the hill to spend a couple of hours at the slate quarry. Our next adventure will be to take the lower track from here all the way down to the Bwlch y Ddeufaen-and it's many neolithic treasures. Coming soon :-) A few more images from the walk:
I first noticed Cil Drygwr when we were wandering about on the west side of Cwm Pennant. We'd been having a look at the remains of Castell Caerau, on the rocky slopes of Craig-y-Garn. It's an iron age fort, but looks more like a collection of random dry-stone walls- still mindblowing, nevertheless, to think that the rocks were put in place by the hands of our distant ancestors.
READ ARTICLE A ruined farm near Llyn Cregennan...and some mining remains.
We were on the lookout for old mines on Google Earth when Petra spotted some trials near Llyn Cregennan, a picturesque lake overlooked by that sharp little peak, Bryn Brith (which I think means "speckled hill"). We motored on up from Dolgellau and scanned the hills for adits...sure enough, there were a couple within striking distance. But we didn't expect to find this ruined house, a welcome surprise. It was on Google Earth, but we somehow missed it. READ ARTICLE The scruffy quarrying settlement that sits above Pen-yr-Orsedd, overlooking the Nantlle Vale, is my kind of town. Y Fron is about as un-chocolate box as it is possible to get, and has no picturesque architecture that would interest tourists, unless they like studying rusty cars and the art of using even rustier old bedsteads as fencing.
READ ARTICLE Continuing our study of the deserted farms and dwellings around the ardal Nasereth/Nebo area is this look at a slightly larger structure, Tal-eithin uchaf. It's to be found off the road, but on a public footpath below Maen-y-gaseg.
READ ARTICLE Over the winter, we spent some time discovering and studying a good many deserted dwellings in the Llanllyfni area, on that stretch of high ground to the east above Dyffryn Nantlle. One of the first (and highest) we found was Maen-y-Gaseg, at the end of a long road on the slopes of Craig Cwm Silyn.
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