Folklore / Folktales / Mabinogion / Welsh Folktales
by Ian · Published October 28, 2012 · Last modified November 23, 2018
Much of the Mabinogion saga is based in the Ardudwy region of North Wales. It was from the ‘Castle Rock’ or ‘Rock of Harlech’ (where Harlech Castle now stands) that the Welsh King Bendigeidfran first saw the Irish longboats of Matholwch loom into view with their shields turned upside down as a sign of peace.
The Groes Las settlement between Harlech and Llanfair was a domestic agricultural homestead in prehistory. It consists of the remains of a hut circle with walls approximately 3.0 metres thick and up to 1.2 metres high.
Ancient Sites / Standing Stones
by Ian · Published October 28, 2012 · Last modified November 23, 2018
This standing stone found close to Merthyr Farm, Harlech, is the tallest and most prominent of the five stones denoting the supposed prehistoric track way known as Fonlief Hir. The stone stands just over six feet tall and can be seen over a gate in the stone farm wall beside the road.
Ancient Sites / Burial Mounds / Stone Circles
by Ian · Published October 28, 2012 · Last modified November 22, 2018
Bedd Gorfal is also known as the Harlech stone circle and is situated close to the ancient Fonlief Hir track way. There are eight stones in the four metre diameter circle, five of them are easily visible and three are small and easily overlooked. The tallest stone is only about one metre tall, and it is split.
Fairies / Folklore / Folktales / Welsh Fairies / Welsh Folktales
by Ian · Published July 20, 2012 · Last modified November 23, 2018
The Church of St Llechid is a Grade II listed building. Built to replace a much earlier 15th century church, the building dates from 1844. There is a siting legend relating the building of original St.
Being only 0.5 acres in area, and built on a small prominent rock, this fort did not have much room for a settlement, but due to its natural defences and its high wall, it would have been easy to defend. Evidence has been found for a single six metre diameter roundhouse within the fort, so it would only have housed a handful of people.
With an entrance facing towards the north-east, this oval shaped hillfort is probably from the Iron Age. It lies at a height of 950 feet, on a promontory of a hill overlooking the Nannau estate and the Mawddach valley. The fort was small, being about 0.5 acres and the single wall enclosing the fort would have been about six feet high, but it is now quite trampled.
Within the Nannau estate near Llanfachreth, there are three hillforts in quite close proximity, Moel Offrwm (Upper fort), Moel Offrwm (Lower fort) and Moel Faner.
Taking the B4391 towards Bala from Llan Ffestiniog for just over a mile, you pass close to an Iron Age hillfort situated in rough moorland known as Bryn-y-Castell. The site was excavated by students from Plas Tan-y-Bwlch (Maentwrog) between 1979 and 1985, and it was found to be an important site for iron production until the arrival of the Romans in North Wales when it was abandoned.
Folklore / Folktales / Legends / Welsh Folktales
by Ian · Published May 28, 2012 · Last modified November 22, 2018
There have been a series of churches in Capel Garmon, the latest of which is the now closed, this being St Garmon’s Church that was built in 1862. In his ‘Welsh folk-lore’ (1887) Elias Owen recounts the following legend he heard pertaining to the church in Capel Garmon from his friend Rev. Owen Jones of Pentrevoelas.
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