Abandoned Landscapes - Around the Llanberis Territory
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PART 2: EXPLORING THE HIGH GROUND
Around the Llanberis Territory 20 Jan 01.
This journey, which takes in three of the four natural passes, was an attempt to capture the archaeological character of the large upland catchments of the northern part of this grand mountainous landscape. The southern zone, including the route from Rhyd Ddu into Cwm y llan and also Cwm Dyli, is visited in a later chapter, The Perfect Line).
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Summer grazings and settlements of Cwm Brwynog (including the Medieval Hafodai) and an inspection of the pass at its head.
Llanberis is essentially a 19th century slate quarrying settlement. Some of the local population originate from this phase in the town's history but even before the building of the Snowdon Mountain Railway in the 1890’s its economy had been bolstered by the influx of tourists, walkers and climbers. The high street is a mix of local shops, Victorian hotels, hostelries and cafes, whilst behind the frontage are the terraced workers houses banked up the valley side. The hinterland of the town is scarred and cratered with huge slate quarries but there is plenty of interest here - lakeside walks, the slate museum, the subterranean hydro-electric power station.
However, long before there was a town here, this area was the gateway to the northern Snowdon massif, dominated by the undulating ridge-line formed by Moel Cyghorion, Foel Goch and Moel Eilio. A series of cwms - Ty-du, Dwythwch, Maesgwym and Brwnynog, fan out towards Llanberis, providing extensive summer grazing land.
There is a very well-preserved string of hut circles and other structures along the side of Cwm Dwythwch, and one high in Cwm yr Hafod, presumably a summer hut (vicinity of 569587 and c.563576). Hafodai, sited at the mouth of each main cwm, were recorded in the Medieval period, and in Cwm Brwynog the remains of perhaps the best-preserved group of hafodai in North Wales can be seen (site 10, Davies 1979 21-3; RCHMW 1960 164, 169, site 1137, 170 site 1143).
A large earthen boundary bank, one of only two I know of in Snowdonia, runs along part of the watershed (the other being the watershed boundary bank at Bwlch Ehediad, (see The Perfect Line chapter) which in the 12th century formed a large summer 'ranch' thought to be part of a royal estate of the kings of Gwynedd (Lynch 1995,161). This was perhaps a formalisation of a natural territory recognised and utilised as such from prehistoric times [note 1].
Early on a cold winter's morning I walked along the still-empty main street of Llanberis. Turning along a little lane past the church, the turf in the fields was crisp and white with frost, and I caught a faint momentary smell of the seaside - seaweed, gulls and shells. On the steep hill road where the Llanberis path veers off on its winding course, I greeted a couple of walkers taking a rest and drink. The little road continues straight along the left hand side of a broad apron of land a couple of miles wide, dotted with sheep, which eventually braids up to the several cwms which hang below the snow-flecked ridge. Approaching the heart of this territory the lowlands are left behind as I passed under the cold shadow of the little turreted bridge of the mountain railway where it crossed the road. All was quiet apart from the distant hiss of road noise and the tuneless trickle of meltwater as the sheet ice on the road dissolved in the low morning sun.
This has been a well-used landscape. Next to the road is a low field wall made of large stones, clearly earlier than the ubiquitous enclosure walls. Hebron station, a small low building, is some way above on the left, and there is a straggle of partially collapsed farmsteads and outbuildings along both sides of the road attesting to a once populated area. However, a lease of probable mid-16th century date relating to this catchment reminds us that this is a tough environment 'The mountains, being marvellous rough and stony it could in no wise be measured, but the valley and the rest of the barren and marsh ground contained about 160 a. all serving only for breed of young cattle.' (quoted in Davies 1979, 21).
At the roadhead is Haffoty Newydd (588578), the furthest and most intact of the buildings, presumably the site of an earlier hafod site transformed into a permanent farm in the 19th century when the present building was constructed. It has been vacant but there are signs of renovation, with building materials lying around. Not far away to the west, on the trackless boggy lower slopes of Moel Cyghorion, are the ruins of Helfa Fain and Helfa Fawr, small farmsteads, originating at least as early as Medieval times but abandoned generations ago (c.581574 and 584575).
I sat down beside a gate 50 yards beyond the farm to change into my mountain boots before entering the open ground of Cwm Brwynog. The remains of the Medieval hafodai I was seeking lay only half a mile away along the cwm. But a landrover appeared up the road, pulled up outside the house and two men get out and commenced unloading sacks of cement. Unfortunately, before I'd chance to continue, the lean and wiry man in charge (perhaps the owner) noticed me and whistled for my attendance as if recalling a recalcitrant sheepdog.
'There's no path here' he informed me with half-amused concern, 'Where are you trying to get to?'. I pointed feebly up the valley and muttered something about 'Up there'. He considered this, presumably thinking I'd got hopelessly lost on my way up Snowdon. 'Well there's no path here' he repeated in a tone not to be contradicted, and he gave detailed directions of how I had to return onto the Llanberis path. Smiling outwardly, I thanked him and waved at his mate as I departed the way I came, dragging my heavy boots along the road. After making a tedious diversion along the greasy track of the railway to circumvent the farm, I cut back down into Cwm Brwynog again. Quarry outspills, patches of marsh and several little gully streams each glassed over with dirty ice like translucent lava frozen in its flow, impeded my skittering progress.
At last I reached the Afon Arddu and found the Hafodai (site 10). They are in two groups, sited on a sloping prow of land between two little tributaries at 350-370m OD. Their rectangular shapes can be easily made out in the low piles of rubble which represent the remains of the walls [note 2]. This is much tougher ground than the environs of the hafod and the farmsteads I passed lower down the cwm but is far more atmospheric, with snow in the folds of the ground, the cold brook gushing into the Afon Arddu, and on the far side of the stream a large sheepfold standing insignificantly at the foot of the steeply rising mass of Moel Cyghorion.
A little above the site is a long stretch of well-made but partially collapsed boundary wall utilising natural boulders. Following this up the valley I found myself caught in a boulder-field. Using all my hillwalking skill, I expertly picked out the longest and most difficult route across the iced rocks. The head of this glen is an empty place with no recent path; the dark presence of Clogwyn Du'r Arddu, arguably the finest rock face in North Wales, looms darkly beyond the steep shattered slopes on the left. Climbing here is first recorded in the 18th century and throughout the 20th century some of the most gifted British rock climbers advanced the limit of possibilities on its slabs [note 3].
The way up to Bwlch Cwm Brwynog (site 8) is wide, with no defined path. Confined to the left hand side by a modern wire fence, I toiled up a shin-cracking boulder slope whilst tantalisingly to the right, on the other side of the fence is much gentler grassy terrain. This labour has its reward however, because hidden just below the top is a marvellous little sheepfold nestling like a strange natural accretion, sculpted from the tumbled chaos of boulders and rocks (593558). It has a small two-chambered refuge for the shepherd, still standing to head height, and an attached enclosure still frequented by adventurous (or lost) sheep. Judging by its location, I would guess that it was used for attending to sheep on the open pasture on the western flanks of Snowdon rather than the valley I’ve just clambered out of.
Noticing a piece of plastic lodged between two rocks beside the shelter, I carried out a minor archaeological investigation by prising it out with my walking pole and discovered it to be a pair of ancient rotting green nylon over-trousers, perhaps forgotten or left in sweaty disgust, after a halt many years ago.
Reaching the watershed I turned east up the broad ridge above Clogwyn du'r Arddu and then stopped to look back on my route. On clambering up it to the pass my first thought had been that it couldn't have been viable for travellers or livestock, but from this high vantage point I now saw I was mistaken; there are two separate notches at the col, the left hand one is entered by the steep rocky route I struggled up, whilst the one on the right is reached by somewhat easier ground. Thus this bwlch obviously did provide access across the main ridge. Equally intriguing, I could clearly see a short stretch of earth bank sweeping right along the middle of this notch as if to cut-off or close it (591558). Perhaps this was an outlying element of the territorial boundary system to the north west (see below).
Up and then down the Ranger path, an inspection of Bwlch Maesgwym, to the top of Moel Eilio and down its north ridge alongside the Medieval boundary bank.
Before continuing my explorations I took a detour towards the Snowdon summit via the nearby Ranger path, joining its dispersed population of walkers plodding their way up. Pennant, who came this way, explains that visitors coming from Llanberis rode on horseback to Bwlch Maesgwym and on to Bwlch Cwm Brwynog. Here, he says, people usually left their horses and continued on foot as '..the ascent becomes very difficult on account of its vast steepness.' (Pennant 1883, 326). Interestingly, beside the path on flat ground beyond here, just before the ground steepens, are the ruins of a small rectangular structure. Whilst it may just be another sheep shelter, could this be the halt for the Victorian visitor where the horses were tethered and refreshments bought?
I passed a group of students as they basked on the rocks beside the path in the clear late morning sun, - the girls amongst them glowingly attractive. On reaching the snowline I overtook a middle-aged couple wearing plastic mountaineering boots, so common on walking routes in the Alps or Pyrenees, but out of place on these hills. At Bwlch Glas, where the railway and several paths meet, people were coming and going as if at a Sunday market; shouting, laughing youths sliding and skidding down the ice on the Llanberis path. Amidst all this bustle, a young woman sat immobile near the tall marker stone at the top of the Pig track, her cramponed feet dangling over the slope, as she gazed intently in the direction of some tiny insect-people on the north east face of Yr Wyddfa - ice-climbers. In the face of all this bustling humanity, the last 'toilsome march' to the cafe at the top suddenly seemed unutterably pointless so I turned right round and retreated, half running, back down the Ranger path.
Reaching Cwm Brwynog once more and continuing past it down the lower slopes of the Ranger path I was back on my intended course and had this magical place all to myself. The Ranger path, starting from beside Llyn Cwellyn in Nant y Betws is thought to be the oldest tourist route up Snowdon and part of its course at least, (perhaps as far as Bwlch Cwm brwynog) must have originated as a stock route to and from the uplands. Certainly it stimulates the romantic imagination as it weaves through this wide green tract of tall tussock-grass, dappled bright marsh, and intricate streams. And like a watercolour-painted backcloth, the mountain rises proudly above the dark gloomy bowl of Cwm Clogwyn, its whole graceful outline glistening glass-sharp in the sunlight.
The path soon joins the track from Rhyd Ddu up to Bwlch Maesgwyn, perhaps the most important pass in the Snowdon massif (573553), and around here there are some interesting features. Winding alongside a small brook a 300m length of pre-enclosure boundary wall can be traced, mostly having slumped into a broad stony bank (575554). For a while it disappears into a patch of marsh but reappears a bit further along as distinct field bank with walling on top. The modern 'Community Boundary' follows its course rather than the adjacent, more recent, linear walls suggesting an early origin; my best guess is that this is a Medieval dyke at the boundary of the enclosed pasture and the open mountain.
Soon this boundary reaches the Maesgwym track which I followed up towards the bwlch and sat on a stone by a metal gate, absorbing the weak sunlight and blissfully savouring a late lunch of tomato soup and bread. There is no sign of a marker cairn at this high-sided and narrow crossing although the presence of earthworks indicate a territorial importance (site 4). Fifty metres before the actual col I spotted a large indeterminate earth bank, and on the Llanberis side a linear blocking bank has been recorded, interpreted as possibly part of the Medieval cattle ranch boundary. Crossing onto this far side, I was suddenly in deep, chilling hill-shadow and I searched in vain for this feature although its clearly shown on the map (573560; Lynch 1995, 161).
The walk along the ridges of Foel Goch and Moel Cyghorion is open and undulating, with rocky scarps on the Llanberis side and steep grassy slopes on the south west. Rather than take this course I followed a field wall contouring around the latter, gentle side of the hill. This wall is in the classic intake-boundary position, at about 450m OD. It looks like a typical 19th century enclosure wall but is set on a distinct bank, and I wonder if it follows the line of an earlier boundary, possibly even the continuation of the system encountered earlier.
At first this stretch was a pleasure, picking my way along on intertwining, snow-banked sheep tracks beside the wall, high above Llyn Cwellyn, with distant traffic noise wafting up from the Caernarvon-Bedgellert road. But the ground is steeply angled and far from following the contours, the wall veers up and down, through runnels and patches of marsh. And then, above Plas y Nant, where the terrain steepens amongst rocky outcrops, I met a tall and taut wire fence not marked on the map which blocked my course. So I ended up having to struggle directly uphill beside the fence towards the top of the ridge I was trying to avoid. The dogs barking in a farm in the valley a thousand feet below sounded as close as if they were at my heels. At the broad top of Foel-gron I crossed the fence by a stile from where I could continue my course. The sun was setting, the hills empty of people and I stopped and gloried in the solitary twilight panorama - the sky tufted with cloud over the Glyders, with the jagged fin of Tryfan just visible beyond, Yr Wyddfa shining weakly to the south east, and most beautiful of all, the blue-tinged Nantlle ridge winding away to the south west.
Cold and dog-tired I reached the hollowed-out cairn on Moel Eilio, the most northerly mountain of the Snowdon range, and flopped down for a moment's rest (site 11). My plan was to descend its wide north ridge beside the long stretch of boundary bank which forms the western edge of the 'Llanberis' estate or territory. Before continuing I set the compass for the first time that day, and double-checked the way down; at the end of a long day it is so easy to take the wrong line, especially in the failing light.
The boundary bank doesn't begin immediately, presumably because steeply-angled rock on the east side of the hill forms a natural barrier. However, once the terrain flattens out the bank emerges, accompanied by a landrover track. Its a substantial piece of work, with a ditch on the west (outer) side, extending for nearly a mile to terminate where the foot of the ridge meets Pen y Bwlch (558595 - 557582). Later shepherds have utilised the shelter of both bank and ditch to build small folds and huts, and I could make out several more structures below the boundary lower down the slope.
The evening cold fell quickly, re-freezing the surface of the track, a wind caught the hillside, cutting through my clothes, and in the distance the lights of Llanberis began to twinkle. I dropped down to join the hard-surfaced track along Pen y Bwlch, where the silhouettes of abandoned buildings stepped out from the darkness to greet me as I passed. High on the right the snow-covered hills were now just a dull smudge and on the left I felt the dark masses of the quarry tips, and close by, the jutting shadow of Dinas, the small hillfort which stands sentinel over this pass above the town (site 3).
The track got worse as it descended but soon I reached tarmac by some gutted 19th century farm buildings and then took a bridle path across the mouth of Cwm Dwythwch where sheep bleated in the black fields and unseen streams chattered noisily. A steep descent on the icy hill road past Hafod Lydan, Llewyn-celyn and the youth hostel quickly brought me to the hillside terraces of the town.
[Note 1: The limits of this territory can be speculatively reconstructed as follows: commencing somewhere near Bwlch y Groes (course now lost) (c.560559), up the northern ridge of Moel Eilio (where the bank can be followed from 559597 to 557583), the next three km are formed naturally by the crags and slopes of Moel Eilio, Foel-gron and Foel-goch (intriguingly there appears to be a low bank aligned north-east/south-west along the centre of the saddle between the latter two tops at c.566564).
(1 cont.] Bwlch Maesgwym is the next passable ground, closed by a blocking bank (573 560), next there is two km of natural boundary formed by Moel Cynghorion and there is another blocking bank possibly related to this complex at the next breach at Bwlch Cwmbrwynog (591557). For the next two km the crags and cliffs of Clogwyn du'r Arddu are impassable for stock. I can find no indications of the return boundary, but it may have run either along the long north west ridge of Yr Wyfdda where it drops into the Llanberis pass, or perhaps lower down the slopes, parallel with the Llanberis path. Overall, this would have been an elegant solution to providing an enclosed cattle-proof area of upland pasture of c. 13 sq. km with perhaps only 2-3 km of boundary construction being required.
Note 2: Centred on 594568, shown on OL17. RCHMW 1960 170 site 1143. Because they are grouped rather than isolated, Frances Lynch has suggested that they are associated with a royal estate (Lynch 1995, 160-1).
Note 3: Describing attempts on the great cliff, Frank Smythe, a leading mountaineer and writer of the inter-war years, captured beautifully the whole atmosphere of Snowdon, and tells how in 1928 a large party including Longland, Pigott, Waller, G. Winthrop Young and Smythe parked at Hafotty Newydd and made the first ascent of the west buttress (Smythe 2000).
(3 cont.) Surprisingly, even in this most difficult terrain there are numerous relict walls and ruined structures to be found, for example walling and enclosure at c. 594559 and a structure beneath a massive boulder and a considerable length of walling contouring the boulder field at c.596560.
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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