Abandoned Landscapes - Along the ridge from Llangynog to Cynwyd
Submitted by TimPrevett on Monday, 11 September 2006 Page Views: 14063
Multi-periodCountry: Wales
Along the ridge from Llangynog to Cynwyd
A cycle-ride from Cynwyd to Llandynog
The walk along the full length of the broad spine of the Berwyn range offers a rewarding way of experiencing its prehistoric monuments and routeways in their broader landscape setting.
The terrain crossed in getting to and from each end is also full of interest but the whole makes for a long, hard day which is made easier by the use of a bike for the long road sections.
From Cynwyd I pedalled south west along the valley road towards Llandrillo, passing the chambered cairn of Tan-y-Coed on the right (047396). At the confluence of the Afon Ceidiog and the River Dee the flood plain widens to nearly a mile. This is the heart of the Dee valley 'core settlement area', which people have always found attractive for settlement.
Of special interest is the ridge of high grazing ground in the angle of the two rivers. On the shoulder of this hill, overlooking the river confluence, is Craig yr Ychain, a superb little circular hillfort (024367). There is a good holloway leading up from here onto the high pasture, as well as boundary banks which possibly form part of a (?later) field system. Higher still, on the extensive undulating plateau is the Neolithic cairn in adjacent forestry (see note in Introduction, above), and at least one large Bronze Age mound (018359) [note 1].
Llandrillo village sits nearby on the low ground in the mouth of Cwm Pennant. This cwm leads directly south up to the pass at Milltir Gerrig where I was heading for. Most of the way is along a narrow single-track road which climbs gradually alongside the Afon Ceidiog. It passes through a sylvan land, with sheep-dotted fields, farms spaced along the bottom and far side of the valley, wood-clad slopes, and the hamlet of Pennant with its small chapel secreted at its heart. Lying so close to the Dee Valley, this sheltered vale, over three miles long, must have been used for agriculture and permanent settlement throughout history. High on its east flank at Cefn Penagored (The Open Ridge) a series of Medieval fields and clearance cairns have been located, demonstrating cultivation (035345), and several small prehistoric cairns sit further along enjoying wide views across and down the length of the valley and along the high pasture (032327).
Still with some distance to go, the headwall of the valley - steep, intimidating and apparently trackless - comes into sight ahead. The road finishes at the farm of Blaen-y-cwm (Head of the Cwm) (023327) and dismounting from my bike I passed through the farmyard, across the footbridge and up a steep stony forestry track. It now becomes clear that escape from the cwm is straightforward although its still hard work pushing the bike over the ruts and stones. I'm sure some mountain-bikers would ride up this stretch but surfaced roads are the natural habitat of the bicycle, and the paths and tracks in the hills should really be left to stock, farmers and walkers.
The way through the forest is mainly along a recent track but near the top a short stretch of perfect sunken-way loops briefly off to the left, surely demonstrating that the route pre-dates the plantation. Then it rolls out onto the open moor within a heavily-eroded stony path. Hollowed grooves run beside the current track showing changing route-lines over many years. At Miltir Gerrig the view splays out across seemingly endless bleak, fragile heather (901301). Riding past this very point with Colt Hoare 200 years ago on the way from Llandynog to Bala, Fenton records that
'This brings us to the touch of the Berwyn hills, where wilds immeasurably spread seemed lengthening as we went.' (Fenton 1917, 40).
Half a century later George Borrow passed here on foot:
'...I turned and looked at the hills I had come across. There they stood, darkly blue, a rain cloud, like ink, hanging over their summits. O, the wild hills of Wales, the land of old renown and of wonder, the land of Arthur and Merlin.' (Borrow 410).
The location is indeed magnificent; to the left I could see the high ridge of the Berwyn curving up into the massing clouds with the cairn on the crest of Llechwed Groes clearly visible, and the distant Moel Sych summit cairn appears momentarily through breaks in the cloud (041309, 067319). To the right are the Hirnants, traversed by the thin line of the modern road and the occasional beetling car. For some reason I can’t pin down this place always makes me feel uneasy.
The modern road (the 'new' turnpike used by both Fenton and Borrow), running above and parallel to Cwm Rhiwarth and the prehistoric trackway to the coast (see later chapter), swoops down into the village of Llandynog three miles away in the Tanat valley. I put on my windproof and helmet and freewheeled down at high speed, rattling over the cattle grids and frantically squeezing the brakes at kinks in the road. Unfortunately I forgot to put on my gloves so my hands were numb and stiff by the time I reached the village.
Testing the natural defences of Craig Rhiwarth hillfort, a fine marker cairn, and across tough heather moorland to Rhos y Beddau Bronze Age sanctuary.
Fenton, visiting this Llandygnog in 1804 in a 'pitiless storm' writes that it is:
'curiously situated in a most sequestered valley surrounded by very high hills, particularly that very striking one, where the slate quarries are [Craig Rhiwarth], on one side, and on the other, the Lead Mines. The slates are very thin, and a very fine blue. The Village is well wooded, and watered by two mountain streams, one the Tanat I suppose.' (Fenton 1917, 40 and see also 79).
Even today the village is fairly isolated and thus retains its character and scale. Padlocking the bike to the fence in the public car park I walked to the base of Craig Rhiwarth which rises more than 1,000ft above to the north. From the minor road at its base all you can see is an immense bank of quarry waste prised from the mountainside, which Fenton aptly describes as 'a lava of loose stones' (Fenton 1917, 40). The map shows inclines and something of a track but before committing myself to a direct assault I asked a man walking his dog if there was a path to the top from here. He was a bit vague but seemed to think there was so I set off, carefully picking my way along a loose incline path through the slate workings and ruined quarry buildings. Soon I had mislaid the way and found myself struggling across interminable, unstable wet slate rubble and slippery turf, all perched at an impossible angle of repose high above the valley floor. How the quarry workers kept their bones and necks intact in this place I can't imagine.
Eventually I scrambled onto the undulating grassy plateau topped by the large hillfort (057270). The ramparts are most visible on the northern side where there is a low, tumbled drystone wall curving around the contours. Numerous large round house foundations can be seen in the vicinity of the walker's summit cairn, and there are also rectangular structures on more sheltered ground to the south interpreted as Medieval or Post-medieval hafodai (Houlder 1974 89-90, with plan, Burnham 1995, 193).
Looking south from here, you can well appreciate its strategic significance, dominating the wide communication corridor formed by the confluence of the Tanat valley, Cwm Pennant Melangell and Cwm Rhiwarth and it must have been a paramount centre for quite a large region. The valley-ground below, centred on Llangynog is divided into a quilt of green fields and would have provided good hay meadow, grazing and farming land, with extensive summer pasture on the highlands all around. The late Professor Barri Jones combined his intimate knowledge of the topography of North East Wales with a reassessment of Tacitus to conclude that this large and impressive hillfort is one of the two most likely sites for Caratacus's 'last stand' against the Roman army. Admittedly, he thought his other candidate, Llanymynech, 15 miles to the east was the most likely, but standing up here the possibility is evocative enough (Jones 1991, esp. 57-61, sheet 126, 265220).
The northern flank of Cwm Rhiwarth presents much less of a natural obstacle. It is formed by the grassy sides of Cwm Orog to the west, and Cwm Glan-hafon to the east; the latter curving impressively down towards the Tanat Valley. I walked to the broad saddle where the cwms meet each other, only a few hundred yards from the hillfort. Here at the far side of the col is Bedd Crynddyn, a classic marker barrow with quartz boulders protruding from the depression on its crown (058281). Looking down at the valleys funnelling off on either side it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that this burial mound acted as a territorial boundary feature, although it also lies on what would have been a good route for getting stock from the main valley into the uplands via Cwm Glan-hafon. There is an old post and wire fence atop a little boundary bank which runs across the saddle, dividing the two valleys. Set on the bank, about 100 yards past the barrow is a small slate grave marker to a favourite hound.
Beyond here I faced crossing tough, trackless heather-ground in order to reach one of the most remote and fascinating archaeological sites in North Wales - the prehistoric 'sanctuary' of Rhos y Beddau. First I slogged north west to the minor top of Post Gwyn (048294) [note 2]. Strangely there don't seem to be any cairns along its crest although its in an area where you might expect them. The valley of the Afon Disfygnia in which the sanctuary nestles lies below, and a freestyle descent of 500ft through the heather sea brought me to the little stream and thence to the site (059303).
Aubrey Burl, the doyen of stone circle scholars in Britain visited here from the natural access route up the valley of the Afon Rhyader and past the Tan y Pistyll waterfall. From there 'to reach the circle entails a Sherpa-like trudging up the mountainside and at the top, a search among the rushes and wild grass to locate the stones in the boggy ground.' (1993 77). This captures the experience well. The circle is about 12m across and formed from small stones. The stone row, 3m wide and similarly diminutive in scale leads due east for some 50m, heading directly for a small but prominent natural outcrop, although visible stones peter out before reaching it. Beyond the outcrop the slope is littered with rocks and boulders of all shapes and sizes and terminates at the sheer edge of the little hidden gorge of Nant y Cerig-duon at Cerrig Beddau. A little to the north of the outcrop is a small kerb-cairn. It is possible that the outcrop itself was a significant element of the complex and maybe the jumbled stones below were seen as a 'stone waterfall' (Grimes 1963 120-2 with detailed plan, and see Darvill and Wainwright 2002).
A special feature of the site is that the stone row doesn't quite connect with the circle. Burl seizes on this fact to suggest that it is a rare example of the stage in megalithic architecture when stone rows (which originated as ceremonial entrances to stone circles) were becoming distinct features in their own right. This new tradition would culminate in the famous and much more massive stone row sites such as Callanish on the Isle of Lewis, or those on Dartmoor. However during the Early Bronze Age, high in the Welsh hills in this now-lonely spot was a community attuned to contemporary and wide-ranging religious practice (Burl 1993 77-8).
What was the social and geographical context of this ritual complex? The presence of the adjacent cairn and another one a mile away just above the waterfall are suggestive of stepped summer grazing settlements above the waterfall and the long narrow valley catchment leading down to Llanrhaeadr (the fine large stone cairn stands uphill from the path at 071297). The sanctuary complex formed by the stone row and kerb cairn may have been an actual occupation site although there is a favoured location in the flatter, wetter base of the valley a couple of hundred yards away at Rhyd y Cwrlid where a variety of sheepfolds and earlier relict walls suggest long-term usage of this location (area of 061300).
Standing at the sanctuary the eye is drawn naturally to the long funnel of the glen down to the Tanat valley and the hills beyond. In all other directions the bleak landscape encloses you, with the arduous slopes on each side indented with minor cwms offering no escape. This may have been a ritual focus for the entire territory along the Afon Rhaeadr. Maybe, like the sanctuary near World's End (see above), the source of the dominant or special stream which flowed down and through a territory may have had symbolic significance, perhaps stimulating communal activities at such a location.
The site may also be telling us one more thing - that the head of this valley wasn't the remote dead-end it now appears to be, but was on a lost routeway between the Tanat and the Dee Valley 'core settlement area'. On the map this looks very plausible; the head of the cwm leading straight to the important node of Milltir Gerrig. If so the sanctuary would be sited beside a track (comparable with several examples from the northern Carneddau), and could have been the focus for wider, inter-communal gatherings [note 3].
Co-incidentally George Borrow provides us with independent evidence that this way was locally known and used into relatively modern times in the description of his walk from Pistyll Rhaeadr to the 'crossroads' at Milltir Gerrig and on to Bala, guided by the tenant of the farm beside the waterfall (then as now a refreshment spot for tourists). They climbed to the head of the waterfall and then continued along the valley beside the Afon Disgynfa. As today there was no proper path:
'Sometimes we crossed watercourses which emptied their tribute into the brook, and every now and then ascended and descended hillocks covered with gorse and whin.' Sheep grazed in small groups and they stopped to examine their physical condition. Next they 'passed by some ruined walls which my guide informed me had once belonged to houses but were now used as sheep-folds.' (presumably the folds at Rhyd y Cwrlid noted above). At the head of the cwm they could see a 'white bare place' to the west where the farmer said the then-new turnpike road to Bala lay but added '...if you were to make straight for that place you would perhaps fall down a steep, or sink into a peat hole up to your middle, or lose your way and never find the road, for you would soon lose sight of that place.' I can attest to the validity of this advice, having fallen thigh-deep into a hidden peat-grough up here. He then guided his charge to the road from where Borrow continued into the dark bleak evening to Bala (Borrow 1920, 399-401). Unfortunately there are no signs of an ancient routeway on the ground or of a marker monument (which might be expected at the bwlch), but much of interest may lie buried in the deep peat hereabouts.
The tramp along the ridge visiting the cairns and passes
With thoughts about the sanctuary and the routeway churning fruitlessly in my mind, I turned towards the main Berwyn ridge. The easiest way up from here is to slog northwards along vague sheep paths up Cerrig Duon which leads to the summit of Moel Sych (066318). Flopping down against the small stony cairn out of the wind I ate lunch. The sky had cleared and the day was now perfect. Briefly, for the first and only time on the hills that day I saw human figures; a group coming up the path from the south, and a father with his teenage daughter walking towards me from the north along the broad braich.
For a mile and a half along the crest of this distinctive ridge to the summit of Cadair Bronwen is a fine linear cairn-cemetery (see Burnham 33-5), and a walk along its length on such a clear day provides a grandstand view of the entire Berwyn topography. The western flank is open with deeply incised moor descending to Cwm Pennant three miles away. This tract has remained undivided by stone enclosure walls although there are some modern post and wire fences. To the east is a steep ragged scarp dropping more than 600 ft to the tamer land of Cwm Maen Gwynedd.
Moel Sych is the first of three closely-spaced cairns. Next is what might be a 'founder's' cairn, just beyond the rocky high point of the whole ridge. This is a large stone structure in a spectacular position perched near the edge of the scarp, looking east down Cwm Maen Gwynedd. Its middle has been scooped out to form a shelter (072324). The third one, at Cadair Berwyn, is a sorry-looking small mound topped by the trig point (073327).
Soon I passed the junction between the main ridge and its long eastern spur along which are the minor tops of Tomle, Foel Wen and Mynydd Tarw. Beyond here the path dives sharply through a depressing morass caused by trail-bikers - juveniles whose recreation is to seek out remote places of grace and beauty and churn them into intractable mire.
Bwlch Maen Gwynedd lies at the bottom of this slope. This is the first of the three passes across the Berywn, and at over 700m is the highest (possibly the highest ancient pass in North Wales). The elevation gives a bird's eye perspective of the layout of the route as it falls on either side of the watershed. To the east its route contours back over the col between the main ridge and the Tomle spur, the site of the standing stone Maen Gwynedd, probably a prehistoric route marker (Burnham 1995, 33) (081337). Bowen and Gresham romantically evoke the deep symbolism of this stone which was 'placed by the track like a portal stone at the gateway to the fastness of Eryri' (1967, 60). On the rocky crest just above this point is another cairn, perhaps also a marker. The trail then drops south east into and along verdant Cwm Maen Gwynedd [note 4]. Westwards from the Maen Gwynant pass the way edges down into the bleakly beautiful cwm of Clochnant. Nowadays there are two routes from here into the Dee Valley both of which perhaps follow early lines. One trends north east keeping height over Moel Pearce, passing close to a cairn on its broad crest (067352), dropping down beside the cairn circle and its nearby cairns at Moel Ty-uchaf to gain the main valley [note 5]. A second route runs straight down the Clochnant valley to eventually skirt the slopes of Cwm Pennant and reach the Dee flood plain at Llandrillo [note 6].
Returning our attention back to the main ridge-walk, there is a short slog up to the summit of Cadair Bronwen and its large grassy platform cairn, Brwdd Arthur, surmounted by a stony walker's cairn (077347). The wind whipped across the path, tugging at my windproof as I descended the broad crest down beside the fence. From here the whole northern range is spread out ahead; miles of undulating, featureless moorland with Moel Fferna at the far end - my final destination for the day - looking much further than three miles away.
A long mile brought me to the second pass over the hills, Pen Bwlch Llandrillo (092366). This was a major ancient route and drove-road across the hills between the Dee and Ceiriog Valleys. Nowadays it is frequently referred to as the ‘Wayfarer's Pass’ after W.M Robinson (1877-1956) who was an advocate of off-road cycling. Its older name is the ‘Maids' Path‘, apparently after the tradition of Llandrillo girls travelling east over this route to seek harvest-time work in the Ceiriog valley (see Godwin and Toulson 1977 134). This seasonal migration of labour exemplifies the connectivity between environments in the uplands, paralleled in other mountain regions such as the Alps (Horden and Purcell 2000, 81).
The antiquity of the pass is verified by a large flat-topped cairn (very similar to its nearest neighbour, Brwdd Arthur) sited just off the crest, to impress those approaching westwards from the Ceiriog valley. As with the marker-cairn at Brenig it was built on a natural rise which magnifies its visual impact. Perhaps its construction formalised the boundary between the micro-regions of the Dee and Ceiriog valleys in the Late Neolithic period or Early Bronze Age.
Beyond here the watershed becomes rather diffuse, the narrow eroded path struggling beside the post and wire fence across the heathery nomansland of Cerrig Coedig. How I wished I'd given up at the Maid’s Pass and gone straight down to the Dee valley. The notch of Bwlch Cynwyd was crossed at last, and Moel Fferna was now close in front. Too weary to look at the surroundings anymore, each step was an effort and my head ached. On the broad bleak summit the sky swelled with impending drizzle and I curled up in the hollow centre of the cairn under a bivi-sheet. A few minutes rest along with a drink, some biscuits and a couple of paracetomol brought me back to life.
After backtracking to Bwlch Cynwyd, the descent to Cynwyd three miles to the west was a delight. From the path across the open moor you can see down into the base of the wide cwm on the left. This is a remote and peaceful place; the ground is a mix of grass, bracken and heather, marked only by sheep paths, with isolated rowan, hawthorn and even a solitary, perfect holly bush looking like an escapee from a garden centre. Here the Nant croes y Wernen (the source of Afon Trystion) and its little tributaries, the Nant Fawr and Nant Fach have worn deep sheltered clefts where archaeological remains can be found:
A ruined long hut sits on a small patch of flat ground above the Nant Fawr, measuring about five by seven metres, with a doorway and collapsed window lintel on the long, north wall (100393). A little further along, on low ground beside the main stream opposite a disused rectilinear sheep enclosure, is a huge boulder, visible from some distance away. Tucked up against it is a slab on edge with a rough low bank extending at 90 degrees, apparently forming a shelter just large enough for one person (c.103388). Such boulders were sometimes used for simple lean-to shelters by shepherds. Most are probably only 2-3 hundred years old, but some, like this one, feel much older. Close by there is a line of three deliberately placed stones suggestive of an early structure or enclosure.
However, the real jewel of this place is a beautifully-preserved shepherd's shelter and fold tucked beside the furthest tributary, Nant Fach (105388). Perhaps because of its isolation it has escaped stone robbing. Trampled and cropped turf show that sheep still shelter in the small enclosure. The shieling itself, all of stone slabs, has a fireplace with part of the chimney stack above, and an adjacent seat only big enough for one where you could sit, stoke the fire, keep warm and cook. There are no remains of a roof. It may have been a day shelter as there is not room to lie down. I guess it might be late 18th or early 19th century, but there is no timber, no corrugated iron, no iron pot, or refuse in the fire-base. It could have been disused for 150 years or more. On a dry, parched winter's day, the turf crackling with ice, I have sat here on the hard stone seat, warmed a tin of soup on my stove and drunk water drawn fresh from the cold stream [note 7].
Once off the moor I entered the sheltered conifer forest where the stretching trunks and high branches filtered the gold evening light. Then past the smallholding at Celyngoed with green fields speckled with pure white sheep, and through the broad-leaved woods beside the noisy stream until the village came into sight tiered above the flood plain [note 8].
Note 1: There are also several big stone clearance heaps hereabouts, some of which also look potentially prehistoric to me, in which case this may be a significant Bronze Age necropolis, possibly associated with the ancestral territory signified by the much earlier Neolithic tomb. Two further features lie on the same hill a kilometre to the south west: Maen Egryn, a massive boulder 'capstone' atop two smaller stones lies deep in heather. This may be a rare boulder-dolmen (otherwise known as a boulder-burial), a type of monument known from Ireland and thought to be Early Bronze Age (003351) ( O'Kelly 1989 237-9 and see Darvill and Wainwright 2002). Just intervisible with it, 300m away, is Carnedd Wen, a large and prominent crest-top structured cairn which has been converted into a sheepfold with unusual small compartments around one side (000352). Both these features refer southwards rather than towards the Dee.
Note 2: A recent authoritative walking guide singles out this hill as being particularly strenuous (Nuttall 1989).
Note 3: Perhaps significantly, the wide flood plain at the confluence of the Afon Rhaeadr and the Tanat valley is marked by the impressive Maes Mochnant standing stone (137248) (Burnham 1995 35-6, Ellis Davies 1929, 302, Houlder 1974, 91). Also, somewhere in the wide lush pastures below the waterfall a Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age prestige stone 'battle axe' has been found which might be a ritual deposition associated with a routeway (Ellis Davies 1929, 306)].
Note 4: From here the Ceiriog Valley can be reached over a col to the east but the most obvious route is south east down the Afon Twrch to meet the Tanat valley at the Maes Mochnant standing stone (137248). The latter feature, standing in the main valley, can thus be seen as the base-marker for this major route across the Berwyn into the Dee valley, perhaps as well as a sign for the Rhos y Beddau ceremonial site. Incidentally, the tall roadside milestone in Llanrhaeadr (125259), erected there in 1770, is reputed to have originated from a site at the very mouth of Cwm Maen Gwynedd (c.116313), three miles from its present site - a perfect place I think for a route-marker mid-way between the Maes Mochnant and Maen Gwynedd stones (see Davies 1929, 303-4).
Note 5: There are intermittent signs of worn trails e.g. at Moel Pearce and also contouring the south west side of the hill below the cairn circle around c.054371].
Note 6: To walk up this route from the village is an experience to be savoured, especially the moment when the made-track peters out, the lush Dee valley falls out of sight and you enter the emptiness of Clochnant. Near this point is a prehistoric settlement consisting of at least two large circular enclosures edged by some large stones, scooped into the slope beside a little stream. I would interpret this as a hafod site, situated at the very boundary of the poor mountain grazing (047352). The path beyond is hardly worth the name and the whole valley seems waterlogged - it is not worth trying to keep your feet dry. The ground eventually steepens near the col where there is a stretch of deeply eroded routeway, and on a stormy winter's morning the wind and sleet hit you at the crest like a roaring Atlantic breaker.
Note 7: For thousands of years, this cwm has offered accessible, if poor, upland pasture to the 'core settlement area' in the Dee valley to the west, and there are likely to be other seasonal or temporarily occupied sites of various periods hereabouts. Yet there are few cairns in the vicinity, and the crests of the main ridge at the head of the cwm to the north are also unadorned, suggesting that usage may have been intermittent and marginal.
Note 8: The route from Cynwyd over and beyond Bwlch Cynwyd is examined in more detail in a later chapter.
See here for contents page, or here for the bibliography.
Note: This is part of an original series of articles written by archaeologist M M Robinson.
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