Historical background
Evidence of human settlement from the Upper Palaeolithic period
is evident from the remains discovered in Kendrick's cave at
SH77988281 in 1879-80, including four human skeletons together
with animal bones, a polished stone axe and a knife and fragments
of flint. Neolithic remains include a burial chamber at Llety's
Filiast. Kendrick's Upper Cave at SH78008284 showed evidence
of settlement in the Bronze Age, when it is clear that exploitation
of the copper ores on the Great Orme was under way, on a scale
which bears comparison with any of the other European prehistoric
copper mines whose sites have so far been confirmed. Pen y
Dinas hillfort, which stands immediately above the Happy Valley
at SH77908295, is an Iron Age site which contains numerous
hut circles, and has been described as an excellent example
of a promontory fort, making use of the formation of the hill,
a natural fastness that needed little strengthening, except
at the neck of the promontory.
There is some evidence for a Roman presence in the area, such
as the discovery of Roman copper cakes at Bryn Euryn, suggesting
that the copper mines were being worked in this period. Some
of the hut circles on the Orme may date from this period as
well as from the pre-Roman Iron Age.
A Norse presence is indicated by the modern English name for
Pen y Gogarth, which derives from Horma Heva, "the Great
Serpent". The manor of Gogarth was granted by the English
crown to the Bishop of Bangor in 1277, and it was here that
a substantial hall house was constructed. The Bishops of Bangor
only finally relinquished ownership of Gogarth in 1891. The
earliest part of the fabric of the church of St Tudno may date
from the twelfth century, and the remains of the ridge and
furrow cultivation nearby constitute a fine example of the
type.
The fourteenth century surveys collectively known as The Record
of Caernarvon indicate that the episcopal manor of Gogarth
included three townships on the Orme - Gogarth itself, Cyngreawdr
to the north, and Yr Wyddfid to the east, overlooking the present
Happy Valley site. However, consolidation of landholdings in
the area by the Mostyn family is already marked by the mid-fifteenth
century and by the 1680s the Bishop of Bangor was complaining
about their enclosing activities. Both lay and ecclesiastical
impropriators demonstrated a hard-headed and entrepreneurial
approach to their lands, based on the exploitation of mineral
ores as well as on agriculture. The Mostyns were at work at
least as early as 1692, and mine sites were already prominent
enough to be marked on the Lewis Morris map of 1748, designed
to assist coastal mariners.
Copper mining continued at Llandudno into the late nineteenth-century,
but was always an uncertain means of generating wealth, being
dependent on world-wide fluctuations in prices which could
easily make marginal operations uneconomic. Drainage was a
particular problem for the miners, tackled by a variety of
means - a "Tom and Jerry" pump-rod system, which
extended across the Orme from near Haulfre to Gogarth, the
driving of a drainage level, and the construction of a steam
pump-engine in 1835, from which Water Street near the Happy
Valley takes its name.
Key historic landscape characteristics
Bell pits, ridge and furrow, relict settlement remains, limestone
walls, tramway
A limestone headland, exceptionally rich in relict archaeology
but also a very popular tourist haunt, accessed by road, tramcar
and cable-car. There is abundant surface evidence of mining
from the Modern period, in particular the long sequence of
rocker-base pits for the flatrods which connected the ‘Tom
and Jerry' engine to the mine. The Bronze Age Mines have recently
been untopped as part of the visitor enhancement. The Great
Orme Tram is a popular attraction which preserves much of its
late-Victorian character.
The landscape is also rich in other forms of communications
system, which include a lighthouse and the site of a telegraph
station.
Back to Creuddyn
and Arllechwedd Landscape Character Map
