Historical background
The field patterns show origins in the late prehistoric period,
and there is substantial evidence for settlement and farming
of that period. Interestingly, relatively few 'long huts' survive
in the area and there is little evidence for medieval activity,
and much of the settlement and many of the field walls which
characterise the current landscape date from the nineteenth
century.
Key historic landscape characteristics
Irregular and curvilinear enclosures, relict archaeological
sites, scattered settlement
The west-facing lower slopes of Moel Tryfan, below the mountain
wall which formerly demarcated the commons here. This landscape
is made up largely of pre-modern field systems, whose irregular
pattern contrasts markedly with the geometric organisation
of the post-1798 enclosures on the commons, though in a number
of places there is evidence for much smaller fields laid out
in the nineteenth century on surviving patches of common land
on these lower slopes. Buildings are a mixture of estate-built
farmhouses and vernacular rural dwellings, with some short
2-storey rows. Construction material is local field stone though
there is some use of yellow brick as quoins, becoming less
prevalent further away from the site of the former Groeslon
station.
Back to Caernarfon-Nantlle
Landscape Character Map
