Pen y Bryn

Pen y Bryn in 1811, Sepia Drawing by Sir Richard Colt-Hoare

Pen y Bryn is an Elizabethan manor house built by Rhys Thomas and his wife Jane, who acquired the manor in 1553 from the Crown. The Elizabethan house is on the site of the Welsh royal home, the 13th century palace of Aber Garth Celyn. It has been commonly known as Pen y Bryn 'Top of the hill' since the late seventeenth century.

The house is located in Abergwyngregyn, Gwynedd, in north-west Wales at grid reference SH653726, adjacent to the A55, five miles east of Bangor, eight miles west of Conwy.

The structure incorporates a watch tower dated to c. 1200 which is still known locally as Tŵr Llywelyn, 'Llywelyn’s Tower'. It overlooks the Menai Strait, with Anglesey on the opposite shore.

The home is currently owned and occupied by Kathryn Pritchard Gibson, who together with her husband Brian and daughters Hannah, Alex and Emily, acquired the manor in 1988. In 1995 supporters established Ymddiriedolaeth Aber/ the Aber Trust, a registered charity (charity number 1050489), and a 'not for profit organisation' to preserve the living history of the location. The Gibson family donated the medieval Gatehouse and adjacent land to the Trust to use for educational purposes.

Pen y Bryn is situated on Bryn llywelyn, Garth Celyn, within a double bank and ditch enclosure that has been scheduled by the Ancient Monuments Board as 'a site of National Importance'. It has been described by experts in the Royal Commission as 'the most important house in the history of Wales', and the 'Declaration of Garth Celyn', written from this place in 1282, was the forerunner of the Scots 'Declaration of Arbroath'.

The scholar Professor J. E.Caerwyn Williams said "[Garth Celyn[ is a place that holds the Nation's memory " The late Edith Pargeter (Ellis Peters) said "At this place time is timeless. You can feel that in your 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 conquest by the massive castles and garrison towns of Conwy, Caernarfon and later Beaumaris; the latter being the final gesture, a menacing figer pointing across the Menai Strait to warn against any further struggle to attempt to regain freedom."

The medieval Palace of Aber features in the novels of Sharon Kay Penman, 'Here Be Dragons' and 'The Reckoning'.

External references

• The Mystery of Llywelyn's Tower
• Garth Celyn, the royal home
• Pen Y Bryn, The Prince's Tower
• Handbook for England and Wales