Historic background
This area contains the rest of the low-lying
coastal floodplain behind Morfa Dyffryn (area 10) and RAE Llanbedr
(area 11), in effect up to where the ground begins to rise.
It includes land to the south and the north of the Artro where
it flows from the hillslopes across the plain and into the
sea. The are includes the Llanbedr standing stone right near
the mouth of the Artro which have been interpreted as the start
of a prehistoric trackway across the upland above Harlech (see
also area 25).
Settlement within the area is limited and
varied and concentrated on the north side of the river. Here
farms (there are no other houses) include Cae Nest farm (an
important sub-medieval farm) near Llanbedr, Argoed (an early
16th century farm with later additions, a good example of the
unit system arrangement of linked dwellings with attached buildings
at the heart of an extensive farmstead) and Llanfair Isa farm
(possibly 18th century, but with earlier origins and a set
of interesting outbuildings). South of the river there are
a couple of minor farms (including one ‘ynys’ placename)
and a couple of 20th century ‘seaside holiday estates’.
The area also includes Mochras (‘Shell island’),
which is a 20th century tourist holiday location based on earlier
19th century farmstead (which is cut off from the mainland
at high tide).
Key historic landscape characteristics
Cut drainage features, farmsteads, drystone
walls
For the most part the area is characterised
by large enclosures defined by cut features (see also area
30), although in the north of the area, around Llanbedr, there
is a definite pattern of improved pasture fields (see photograph)
around the three afore-mentioned farms which are defined by
the distinctive white, boulder, neat drystone walls (see area
01). However, cut drainage features occur across the area,
concentrated around the Artro itself.
Llanbedr station lies on the edge of the area
on a road which comes down from the village and leads to RAE
Llanbedr (area 11) and eventually (allowing for the state of
the tides) to the holiday location of Mochras.
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Landscape Character Map
