Abergwyngregyn

Aber Falls

Abergwyngregyn is a village of historical note in Gwynedd, a principal area in Wales. It is located at grid reference SH653726, adjacent to the A55, five miles (8 km) east of Bangor, eight miles (13 km) west of Conwy.

History

Aber Garth Celyn, now known as Abergwyngregyn, and generally shortened to Aber, is a settlement of great antiquity and pre-conquest importance on the north coast of Gwynedd. Its boundaries stretch from the Menai Strait up to the headwaters of the Afon Goch and Afon Anafon. Protected to the east by the headland of Penmaenmawr, and at its rear by Snowdonia, it controlled the ancient crossing point of the Lafan Sands to Anglesey. A pre-Roman defensive enclosure, Maes y Gaer, which rises above Garth Celyn on the eastern side of the valley, has far reaching views over Irish Sea with the Isle of Man visible on a clear day. The Roman road from Chester (Deva), linking the forts of Canovium (later name Conovium) and Segontium, crossed the river at this point.

Garth Celyn

Main article: Garth Celyn

Garth Celyn, now also known as Bryn Llywelyn, is a strategic promontory of land on the east side of the river, overlooking the Menai Strait and the port of Llanfaes on the opposite shore. The Roman road that linked Conovium to Segontium (Caernarfon) looped round the Garth. At the end of the 12th century, beginning of the thirteenth century, Llywelyn the Great utilized the promontory to build a royal home, known as Ty Hir, the Long House SH65827273 in later times. To the east was the newly endowed Cistercian monastery of Aberconwy; to the west the cathedral city of Bangor. Between Garth Celyn and the shore, the fertile farmland, provided food for the royal family and the members of the Royal court. The sea and the river had fish in abundance and there was wild game to be hunted in the uplands. In 1211 King John of England brought an army across the river Conwy, and occupied the royal home for a brief period; his troops went on to burn Bangor. Llywelyn's wife, John's daughter Joan, negotiated between the two men, and John withdrew.

The Elizabethan manor house, known as Pen y Bryn, on top of Garth Celyn, occupies the site of the pre-conquest royal home, and incorporates its remains including a watchtower dated by Professor David Austin to c. 1200. Elaborately carved sandstone found on the site has been dated by Dr Jonathan Foyle and other experts to the period about 1220.

• William_de_Braose,_Lord_of_Abergavenny, having been found in Llywelyn's chamber together with Joan, is believed in local community memory passed down through the generations, to have been hanged in the marshland below Garth Celyn, the place that was remembered as Gwern y Grog (Welsh: "Hanging Marsh"), in May 1230.
• Joan died at Garth Celyn in 1237;
• Dafydd ap Llywelyn died there in 1246;
• Eleanor de Montfort, Lady of Wales, wife of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, died there on 19 June 1282, giving birth to a baby, Gwenllian. Gwenllian was captured by the troops of Edward I in 1283 and imprisoned for life in the Gibertine monastery at Sempringham in Lincolnshire.
• In November 1282, the Archbishop of Canterbury came to Garth Celyn to negotiate between King Edward I of England and Tywysog Llywelyn.
• In November 1282, Llywelyn wrote letters dated from Garth Celyn, totally rejecting the bribe offered by the Crown of England.

After the Edwardian conquest of North Wales the name Garth Celyn was eliminated from the record books. The name, though it continued in local use, was never used in any document of the English administration.

The settlement Aber Garth Celyn adjacent to the royal home became officially known by the English conquerors simply as Aber, 'Estuary' with its identity removed; later more descriptively as Aber Gwyn Gregyn, 'Estuary of the White Shells'. The invasion of Wales was accompanied by savage reprisals against those who had stood in the way of the will of the king of England. On 18 January 1283, Dolwyddelan Castle was occupied by the army of invasion (PRO. E101/359/9)and immediately munitioned to provide a base in the Lledr valley. At Edward’s command raiding parties were sent out into the mountains of Snowdonia to search for booty. The troops were informed that they could claim one shilling as the king’s gift for the head of every Welshman that they brought back to camp.

Garth Celyn was surrounded by the castles of Conwy, Caernarfon and later Beaumaris. Wales became England’s first colony.

Main article: Pen y Bryn

Garth Celyn, the demesne messuage of the royal manor, became known as Pen y Bryn. In 1553 the 'Manor of Aber' was granted to the Thomas family; they converted the remains of Ty Hir, the medieval Long House, the home of the Princes, into an Elizabethan manor house. The tower, Twr Llywelyn, built c.1200, still stands.

The scholar Professor J. E.Caerwyn Williams said "Garth Celyn holds a memory of what is dear to the people of Wales"

The late Edith Pargeter (Ellis Peters) said "[Garth Celyn] was somewhere just so special to the princes of Gwynedd that they made it their home, and just by standing there, it is easy to see why. At this place time is timeless. You can feel that in our bones."

Dr Gweneth Lilly "Garth Celyn reaches to the very heart of what is Welshness. Once what could be described as the capital of independent Wales, it was deliberately overshadowed during the Edwardian Anglo Norman conquest by the massive castles and garrison towns of Conwy, Caernarfon and later Beaumaris; the latter being the final gesture, a menacing finger pointing across the Menai Strait to warn against any further struggle to attempt to regain freedom."

Aber Valley

Aber Falls

See main article Aber Falls

The valley provides the access to one of Wales' great waterfalls, the Aber Falls as the Afon Goch falls precipitously, some 120 feet (37 m) over a sill of igneous rock into a marshy area where it is joined by two tributaries; the enlarged stream, Afon Rhaeadr Fawr, heads towards the Menai Strait and the sea. Part way down it becomes Afon Aber Garth Celyn, or more recently Afon Aber, and the valley was known as Nant Aber Garth Celyn.

Bont Newydd

The single barrel-vault bridge at SH662720 spans Afon Aber Garth Celyn, providing a roadway across the river, some 25 ft (7.6 m) in width. The date of construction is unknown, but its existence was marked on the Ordnance Survey map of 1822. The bridge provided a safe crossing for drovers leading animals on a Drovers road up the valley. Large stones in the river under the bridge mark the site of an earlier ford.

Aber is the coastal crossing point for the ancient drovers and later Roman road that led across the Lafan Sands to Anglesey.

The Roman road from Chester crossed the river Conwy south of Tal-y-Cafn, connected with the fort at Conovium Caerhun by a short branch, then led up via Rowen and Bwlch-y-Ddeufaen, the Pass of the Two Stones, as an engineered overlay on top of the earlier British trackway, into Snowdonia.

The Roman road descends down Rhiwiau, the valley between Llanfairfechan and Aber, follows the coastal route west, loops round Bryn Llywelyn, Garth Celyn, crosses the river by means of a ford, passes by the church and leads on to the major Roman fort at Segontium, Caernarfon.

The drovers road from Anglesey came into the settlement on the valley bottom on the west bank of the valley bottom , where provision was made for the animals to be penned and shod, and the feet of the geese to be coated in pitch, and then followed the valley to join with the Roman road.

Three Roman milestones have been discovered in the area. Two of these, found in 1883 in a field called Caegwag, on the farm Rhiwiau Uchaf SH6790727 are now in the British Museum, London.

Maes y Gaer

This is a defensive enclosure, built on a hill that forms the western end of a spur overlooking the valley at SH673725. It is approx 730 ft (220 m). above O.D. The walls of the enclosure are pear shaped and protect an area 400 ft long and 220 ft (67 m). wide of about one and a half acres. Maes y Gaer has a steep drop on all sides except the east, where the there is a more gentle slope leading to the pasture land. The entrance is on the south-east, now badly ruined but originally 11 ft (3.4 m). wide, with a passageway to the interior 20 ft (6.1 m). long. Below Maes y Gaer, above Garth Celyn Pen y Bryn, is a level area of land known as 'Elen's Garden' in memory of Eleanor de Montfort, princess of Wales.

Hafod Celyn, Hafod Garth Celyn

This is the summer pastureland of Garth Celyn, on open moorland rising to 800 ft (240 m) above Ordnance Datum at SH676713. The small building on this site, now in ruins, was rebuilt in the 18th century on the ruins of an earlier building that extended further to the west.

Y Mŵd

"An earthen motte in the mouth of the valley marks the settlement and the prince's residence was set on a shelf just above it to the east". Dr Colin Gresham (T.C.H.S. 1979) The settlement of Aber Garth Celyn was on the valley bottom on the west bank of the river; the 'prince's residence' was on the 'shelf', Pen y Bryn, Garth Celyn, to the east.

The precise nature of the 'earthen motte', Pen y Mŵd at SH656726, has led to some debate. It was renamed 'Aber Castle Mound' by the Ancient Monuments Board, on the grounds that 'it was assumed to be a Norman castle'. E. S. Armitage in her work The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles, confused Aber Garth Celyn with Aber Menai leading to the assumption that it might have been constructed by Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester. The word Mŵd in early Welsh means 'vault' or 'chamber', and there is no record or proof that the Normans, or anyone else, built a motte and bailey castle at Aber. The mound is circular, 22-foot (6.7 m) high with an oval top 57 feet (17 m) by 48 feet (15 m). It has been suggested that it might perhaps be a fifth or 6th century A.D. mound built over the body of a local champion warrior lord who in his lifetime had protected his people, and in death was expected to do the same. The area was Christian at this time, but the people still clung to their traditional beliefs. Other similar mounds, such as the one on which the Pillar of Elisig near Llangollen stands, or the one at Scone in Scotland, have been found especially in northern and western Britain, and while it is difficult to resolve the debate, it is worth mentioning.

Post conquest stone building

The identification of a large structure on the valley bottom near y Mwd is a significant step towards the recognition of the individual units which, according to Professor David Austin, would have formed the commotal cente complex in the manor of Aber. The layout of the river boulder, unmortared foundations of a building, were found in 1993 by G.A.T. The structure, dated by Professor Austin to the post conquest period, is near y Mwd in the heart of the village community; it showed no traces of having been a high status building, and it is thought that might be a large barn for the commotal centre and the important crossing from Anglesey, or a local government building, but at the present there is no certainty. Leyland's reference to 'the moode' in 1537 is listed under the heading Castelles in Cair Arvonshire. He stated that the 'palace' remains were 'on the hill', indicating clearly Pen y Bryn / Bryn Llywelyn / Garth Celyn.

Llyn Anafon

Llyn Anafon is the most northerly of the Carneddau lakes, lying between Llwytmor, Foel Fras and Y Drum. It has a maximum depth of 10 feet (3.0 m). A dam was built across the lake in 1930 to enable water to be supplied to the nearby coastal villages. There are brown trout in the lake and by long held custom people who lived in the village had the right to fish both the lake and the river. Half a mile below the lake there are prehistoric hut circles and other signs of early human inhabitation. There is an arrow stone on the lower slopes of Foel Ganol, and another leading down to Cammarnaint Farm. A gold cross, five inches (127 mm) in height, was found on the summit of Carnedd y Ddelw above the lake in 1812.

The earliest name for the vale was Nant Mawan ('Record of Caernarfon', 1371, Bangor University Archives). Mawan, a personal name, contracted over time. Llyn Nant Mawan, became Llyn Nan (Mafon) and then Llyn (N)anafon.

Nearby is an area known as Buarth Merched Mafon (Enclosure of Mafon's Daughters).

Nothing is known about Mawan, but his son Llemenig is mentioned in several early Welsh sources. His name is mentioned in two englyns at the end of a 'Cynddylan' fragment in a manuscript (Canu Llywarch Hen XI. 112b.113b.)

When I hear the thundering roar, [it is] the host of Llemenig mab Mahawen [read Mawan]. Battle-hound of wrath, victorious in battle.

In Triad Ynys Prydain no. 43, his horse is described as one of the Three pack-Horses of Ynys Prydain. Ysgwyddfrith ('Dappled-shoulder') the horse of Llemenig ap Mawan.

Bird watching

Coedydd Aber is situated in an area of scenic beauty. The steep sided wooded valley, Nant Aber Garth Celyn, leads to the foothill of Y Carneddau. The river has the steepest fall of any in Wales and England. There is a wide variety of habitats in the valley including a diversity of woodlands, open farmland and scrub. A range birds can be found here, including raven, buzzards, peregrine falcon, sparrowhawk and choughs on the sea cliffs, tree pipit and redstart along the woodland edge, and pied flycatcher and wood warbler in the Welsh Oak woods. By the shore, a hide has been erected on the edge of the Menai Strait, providing clear views of the sea birds on the Lafan sands. As a young man, Sir Peter Scott, used Twr Llywelyn, the watchtower built c. 1200 on Garth Celyn, as a place to position his telescope, to watch the birds flying in off the Irish sea.

Glaciation

Since the beginning of the Ice Age, 2.4 million years ago, the uplands of North Wales have been subject to several phases of glaciation. The Aber valley provides physical evidence of the two younger phases of glaciation which occurred between 18,000-20,000 and 10,000-11,000 years ago. Y Carneddau has a notable range of glacial and periglacial features that have been studied by geologists, including Charles Darwin, for well over a century, and plays a key role not only into research into landforms, but also into climate change and vegetation history.

Bibliography

• Caernarvonshire Historical Society Transactions 1962 Article Aber Gwyn Gregin Professor T. Jones Pierce
• Y Traethodydd 1998 Tystiolaeth Garth Celyn
• Gwynfor Evans (2001) Cymru O Hud Abergwyngregyn
• Gwynfor Evans (2002) Eternal Wales Abergwyngregyn
• John Edward Lloyd (1911) A history of Wales from the earliest times to the Edwardian conquest (Longmans, Green & Co.) see pages 670-71 for Gwern y Grog
• O. H. Fynes-Clinton (Oxford 1912) The Welsh Vocabulary of the Bangor District
• Harold Hughes and Herbert North (Bangor, 192) The Old Churches of Snowdonia, p.152-155.

Literature

• Saunders Lewis play Siwan
• Thomas Parry play Llywelyn Fawr
• Edith Pargeter novel The Green Branch
• Edith Pargeter novel The Brothers of Gwynedd
• Barbara Erskine novel Child of the Phoenix
• Sharon Penman novel Here be Dragons
• Sharon Penman novel Falls the Shadow"
• Sharon Penman novel The Reckoning

See also

Aber and Inver as place-name elements

External links

• www.geograph.co.uk : photos of Abergwyngregyn and surrounding area

www.abergwyngregyn.co.uk To see many of the above reports in detail and the two winged, post conquest structure on the valley bottom.