Historical background
The characteristic topography of the area includes hillsides
along the west bank of the Conwy that are neither too shallow
for intensive settlement nor too steep for exploitation, and
these have historically been given over to enclosed field-systems,
together with some quarrying and mining as at Llechan, and
commercial forestry, as at Parc Mawr.
The steep slopes formed an obstacle to east-west traffic,
but several ancient routes crossed this land-area, including
the Roman road from Canovium to Segontium, and a trackway climbing
through Parc Mawr to the old church at Llangelynin. The church
itself is of Medieval origin,
whose oldest parts date to the twelfth century, and the track
itself is probably therefore of Medieval origin or older.
Key historic landscape characteristics
Upstanding prehistoric and medieval settlement, field system
and funerary remains, dry-stone wall fields, well-established
routeways
The land here is all enclosed with, on the whole, small-scale
patterns which have been created by the organic development
of an agricultural landscape, based on grazing, which has evolved
over millennia. Most of the boundaries are dry stone walls,
although hedges are more common on lower slopes where there
also patches of woodland, and although many are now no longer
stock-proof they are very characteristic of the area: in places,
a relative chronology can be built up by careful observation.
While some of the boundaries and larger patterns are relatively
recent, others relate to farming practices which date back
to the prehistoric period and are associated with relict settlements,
many of which are scheduled ancient monuments. In general,
the earlier sites and systems are better-preserved on the upper
(flatter) slopes.
The area is chiefly important for the wealth of relict (mainly
prehistoric, but with obvious overlying medieval) settlement
sites, set within at least part of their contemporary agricultural
landscape. Despite much of the area being scheduled, the potential
for further discoveries is high given a programme of detailed
flying and surveying. Unlike many other upland areas which
display evidence for the organisation of the landscape in the
post-medieval period, this area is relatively free of later
‘encumbrances'.
Most of the area is an open and exposed landscape with relatively
few and widely-scattered farmsteads. On the valley slopes the
scattered pattern predominated again, although there are small
nucleations (especially around Llanbedr-y-Cennin). Farms vary
from squat, upland-type dwellings to grander, nineteenth-century
constructions with a suite of modern outbuildings.
A number of former major routes run through the area (linking
the Conwy Valley with the coastal plain prior to the building
of the coast road in the late eighteenth century). The line
of the Roman road from Caerhun can be followed in places; this
was probably replaced by (if it didn't follow) the road from
Rowen past Rhiw, which itself seems to have been replaced by
the road to the south of this. Interestingly, the upper-most
routeways in the area (now a road and a footpath) follow the
edge of the ‘older' enclosed land (pre-dating the great Caerhun
enclosure of the mid-nineteenth century). Few of the footpaths
seem to follow winding paths which they might be expected to,
but cut across field patterns and earlier field systems. Deep
lanes lead out from the main valley side to a stone-walled
upland landscape, where the routeways, whilst retaining their
character, are wider and more open.
Back to Creuddyn
and Arllechwedd Landscape Character Map
